Why Indian Films Don't Enter in Grammy Race?

Introduction

Though we all make good films at national and regional levels, they fail to cut the cake at the international level due to various factors, which include their failure to appeal to the international audience. Apart from this, there are selection flaws, high campaign costs, and different ways of storytelling that have failed to attract an international audience. 

Indian's Tryst with Oscar and Negligence

India's fascination for Oscar started with the nomination of Mother India, directed by Mehboob Khan, way back in 1957. This film got the attention as the best international feature film nomination. The other films that got nominations in this category are Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001). However, neither of these films got due attention. While that was the case, FFI's nomination of badly performing films for Oscar awards drew a lot of ire from the film critics. The FFI wrongly picked up a Guarati film, "The Road," instead of the much-appreciated Irfan-directed film, "Lunch Box." It also picked up the Priyanka Chopra-directed film "Barfia." That year there were stupendous films like the Iranian entry, A Separation, which ultimately won the Oscar that year. The reasons are listed below.

1. Flawed Official Selection: The mismatched entries, which are deeply rooted in culture and filled with a lot of melodrama, have been nominated for Oscar awards. They do not sync with the expectations of the international audience. Generally, Oscar-winning films have subtle and hyper-realistic themes. Prominent directors such as Anurag Kashyap have openly criticized the flawed selection process.  They opined that highly acclaimed artistic movies like "The Lunchbox"  and "All We Imagine as Light" (AWIAL) have been discarded by the film federation. For instance, the Film Federation of India (FFI) preferred Laapata Ladies and discarded AWIAL. The film critics opined that the film Laapata Ladies was destined to fail. On the other hand, film AWIAL had the potential to attract the Grammy audience. 
2. High Campaign Cost: The film needs to reach the intended audience to elicit a good response. This can only be realized through roadshows. Therefore, the makers of Oscar-winning movies would have invested millions of dollars in marketing, dedicated publicists, and aggressive "for your consideration" roadshows targeted at Academy voters.  If the campaigns and roadshows are effective, the visibility increases in the panel of judges. This is the reason why the international entries from countries like South Korea or European nations often have massive backing from global streaming giants or deep-pocketed studio campaigns to improve their visibility amongst the Grammy voters. This is where most Indian filmmakers fail, as they do not have the financial framework or strategic festival rollout to sustain these costly American campaigns.
3. Difference in Narration:  The narration that Indian films give is culturally different from what is being provided by the international films. The Indian films use melodramatic sequences, grand emotions, and dance-and-song sequences. On the other hand, the international movies give slow-burning, restrained, and hyper-realistic sequences that appeal to the Grammy audiences. Traditionally, the mainstream Indian cinema relies on grand emotions, melodramatic scenes, and signature song-and-dance sequences. These vibrant elements of Indian cinema are against the sequences that are traditionally favored by Academy voters. When India submits grim, down-to-earth "poverty porn" or gritty regional art-house films, they may fail to stand out against the international submissions that follow Western aesthetic formulas.