Here is why Congratulations India is trending on Twitter today

India’s success at the Oscars comes four years after anyone from the country had won an award at the ceremony. At the 91st Academy Awards in 2019, Monga won the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category for the short film Period. End of Sentence. With her win today, Monga is one of only two Indians to have more than one Oscar statuette.

Despite India’s celebrated film culture, the country’s tally at the Oscars is lacklustre. A total of seven Indians won Oscars, apart from awards for Technical Achievement and Honorary awards. Three of the seven joined the list today, Gonsalves, MM Keeravani and Chandrabose.

Apart from Monga’s 2019 Oscar win, other previous Oscar winners include AR Rahman, who won two Oscars in 2009 in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. Other winners include noted lyricist Gulzar, who also won in 2009 for Best Original Song along with Rahman for Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, Resul Pookutty who won in the Best Sound Mixing category for the same movie in 2009, and costume designer and painter Bhanu Athaiya, who won in the Best Costume Design for her work on Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi.

Only three Indian movies have ever been nominated for the Oscars, in the Best Foreign Language Film category. These three are Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001). But, the win may hold the key to helping global audiences to celebrate and recognise Indian movies, filmmakers and songs like never before.

As Oscar-winning lyricist Keeravani had told Billboard, “I am looking forward to the world embracing more and more Indian songs, movies, stories and cultures. Not only from me but from my fellow musicians, directors and movie-makers in India.”