List of Oscar Award Winners in India Till 2024! – Know About the Latest Oscars for India

Oscar Award Winners in India 2024 will be announced on March 10, 2024. At the latest, India won 2 Oscars in the 2023 Academy Awards for The Elephant Whisperers as Best Documentary (Short Film) and RRR for Best Music (Original Song). The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, are the most prestigious awards in the world of cinema. Over the years, several Indian actors, filmmakers, and technicians have won Oscars for their outstanding contributions to the film industry. These awards have not only put Indian cinema on the global map but also serve as an inspiration to many aspiring filmmakers and actors in the country. In this article, we will take a look at some of the most notable Oscar winners from India and their contributions to the world of cinema.

• To date India has won 7 Oscars as Competitive awards, 1 as an Honorary award and 3 Scientific and Technical awards, making a total of 8 Academy Awards in the bucket of India.
• Slumdog Millionaire (2009) has won the most awards.
• Bhanu Athaiya was the first Indian to win an Oscar. 

Oscars 2024 Winners List

List of Oscar Award Winners in India

The table below features the seven Indian Oscar Award winners to date (competitive and honorary). As soon as any new winners emerge, the table will be updated to include them as part of the list of Indian Oscar Award winners.

Year	Recipients	Category	Film
1983	Bhanu Athaiya	Best Costume Design	Gandhi
1992	Satyajit Ray	Honorary Award	–
2009	Resul Pookutty	Best Sound Mixing	Slumdog Millionaire
2009	Gulzar	Best Original Song	Slumdog Millionaire
2009	A R Rahman	Best Original Score and Best Original Song	Slumdog Millionaire
2023	Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga	Best Documentary (Short Film)	The Elephant Whisperers
2023	M.M. Keeravani (Music) and Chandrabose (Lyrics)	Best Music (Original Song)	RRR

Bhanu Athaiya, who was a prominent costume designer in Hindi cinema from the 1950s to the 2000s, had a significant impact on the industry’s aesthetic. She was the first Indian to receive an Oscar for Best Costume Design for the Gandhi biography directed by Richard Attenborough in 1982. Athaiya designed costumes for several Hollywood stars, including historical figures such as MK Gandhi and BR Ambedkar. Her iconic outfits, which combined Indian and Western fashion elements, were worn by both urban and rural characters in films such as Amrapali, Waqt, Brahmachari, Teesri Manzil, Guide, Reshma Aur Shera, 1942: A Love Story, Lagaan, and Swades.

Satyajit Ray, a legendary Indian filmmaker, received the honorary award at the 64th Academy Awards in 1992 in recognition of his exceptional filmmaking skills and profound humanitarian vision, which have had a tremendous impact on filmmakers and viewers worldwide. In addition to this award, Ray also received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the Bharat Ratna, which are the highest cinema and civilian honours in India, and 36 wins at India’s National Film Awards. The Indian government has established the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema, and various film organisations in the country are planning centenary celebrations for Ray, which will be virtual-physical hybrids due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Resul Pookutty, an Indian sound editor, mixer, and sound designer, won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for his work on the film Slumdog Millionaire. Pookutty has worked on films made in Hollywood, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam, starting with the 1997 Rajat Kapoor film Private Detective: Two Plus One, which marked his entry into sound design. He rose to prominence after working as a sound engineer for the highly acclaimed 2005 film Black directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Pookutty has also worked on notable films such as Enthiran (2009), Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (2010), Gandhi, My Father (2011), Zinda (2006), and Traffic Signal (2010).

Gulzar, who is known for his work in scripts, poetry, dialogue, and lyrics, received an Oscar for Best Original Song with AR Rahman for “Jai Ho” at the 81st Academy Awards. The song became a hit not only in India but also in Hollywood. Gulzar has received 36 honours and accolades, including the Rashtriya Kishore Kumar Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for 1999–2000, 22 Filmfare Awards, and five National Film Awards. He has also won the 2002 Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu, the 2004 Padma Bhushan, and the 2013 Dadasaheb Phalke.

A.R Rahman, a renowned Indian composer, won two Oscars for his work on the film Slumdog Millionaire. He received the Best Original Song Oscar for “Jai Ho,” which he co-wrote with Gulzar, and the Best Original Score Oscar for the film. Rahman began his career by composing music for documentaries, jingles, and Indian television networks in the early 1990s. He later became a prominent film composer through his studio, Panchathan Record Inn, and worked on several films, including the comedy Couple’s Retreat (2009), which won the BMI Award for Best Score. Rahman also won the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

Oscar Nominations 2023 India

Three Indian movies have made it to the final list of nominations for the 95th Academy Awards, making this year’s Oscars Award special for India. These films are in contention to receive the coveted award in different categories. Below are the full details of these movies and the categories they are nominated in.

The first film is RRR, a historical action-drama epic that gained fame internationally. Directed by SS Rajamouli, the film’s song “Naatu Naatu” has been nominated in the Best Original Song category. The other nominees in the same category include “Applause” (Tell It Like a Woman), “Hold My Hand” (Top Gun: Maverick), “Lift Me Up” (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and “This Is a Life” (Everything Everywhere All at Once). The song will be performed live on stage as well.

The second film is All That Breathes, a Gujarati language documentary feature directed by Shaunak Sen, which became a finalist for the Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary Feature Film. The movie will compete with All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, A House Made of Splinters, and Navalny.

The third Indian film to make it to the final list of Oscar nominations is The Elephant Whisperers, a Netflix documentary short film directed by Kartiki Gonsalves. The documentary showcases how two abandoned elephants and their keepers form an unbreakable bond. The film is nominated in the category of Best Documentary Short Film. The other nominees of this category include Haulout, How Do You Measure a Year? The Martha Mitchell Effect, and Stranger at the Gate.

Oscar Nominations From India To Date

Apart from knowing Oscar Award Winners in India, you also need to know the Oscar nomination from India so far.

Year	Nominee(s)/recipient(s)	Film	Category	Result
1958 (30th)	Mother India	Mother India	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
1961 (33rd)	Ismail Merchant	The Creation of Woman	Best Short Subject (Live Action)	Nominated
1969 (41st)	Fali Bilimoria	The House That Ananda Built	Best Documentary (Short Subject)	Nominated
1978 (50th)	Ishu Patel	Bead Game	Best Animated Short Film	Nominated
1979 (51st)	K. K. Kapil	An Encounter with Faces	Best Documentary (Short Subject)	Nominated
1983 (55th)	Bhanu Athaiya	Gandhi	Best Costume Design	Won
	Ravi Shankar		Best Original Score	Nominated
1987 (59th)	Ismail Merchant	A Room with a View	Best Picture	Nominated
1989 (61st)	Salaam Bombay!	Salaam Bombay!	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
1993 (65th)	Ismail Merchant	Howards End	Best Picture	Nominated
1994 (66th)		The Remains of the Day		Nominated
2002 (74th)	Lagaan	Lagaan	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2005 (77th)	Ashvin Kumar	Little Terrorist	Best Short Subject (Live Action)	Nominated
2009 (81st)	Resul Pookutty	Slumdog Millionaire	Best Sound Mixing	Won
	Gulzar (Lyrics)		Best Original Song (For “Jai Ho”)	Won
	A. R. Rahman (Music)			Won
			Best Original Score	Won
			Best Original Song (For “O… Saya”)	Nominated
2011 (83rd)		127 Hours	Best Original Score	Nominated
			Best Original Song (For “If I Rise”)	Nominated
2013 (85th)	Bombay Jayashri (Lyrics)	Life of Pi	Best Original Song (For “Pi’s Lullaby”)	Nominated
2022 (94th)	Rintu Thomas Sushmit Ghosh	Writing with Fire	Best Documentary Feature	Nominated
2023 (95th)	Shaunak Sen Aman Mann	All That Breathes	Best Documentary Feature	Nominated
	Kartiki Gonsalves Guneet Monga	The Elephant Whisperers	Best Documentary (Short Subject)	Won
	M.M. Keeravani (Music) Chandrabose (Lyrics)	RRR	Best Original Song (For “Naatu Naatu”)	Won

Oscar Award Winners in India – FAQs