After Homebound, India’s official entry to the Oscars and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, failed to make it to the shortlist in the Best International Feature Film category, actor Saurabh Shukla shared a candid take on why Indian cinema often misses out on international awards. Speaking to ABP Live, he described the Oscars and Cannes as mere “byproducts” of a filmmaker’s commitment to their craft.

‘Oscars, Cannes Are Byproducts’

Shukla stressed that a filmmaker’s “North Star” should always be their art, rather than the red carpet.

“Work on your art. Make the film you truly want to make. Tell the story you genuinely want to tell. Don’t create with the mindset that it has to be a hit, or that it must go to Cannes, or that it must win an Oscar. Those things are byproducts,” Saurabh Shukla told ABP Live. 

He went on to explain why Indian cinema often falters in its quest for a statuette through a lesson from the world of table tennis. Shukla recalled a match he lost, after which his coach asked him if he knew why he had been defeated.

“I once learned a powerful lesson through table tennis. It’s an 11-point game. One day, after losing a match, my coach asked me, ‘You feel bad when you lose, don’t you?’ I said, of course. Nobody likes losing. Then he asked, ‘Have you ever thought about why you lose?’ I said I don’t know,” he recalled.

When his coach asked what he was thinking at the start of a serve, Shukla admitted, “I told him my first thought was, ‘I have to win this game’.” According to his coach, that obsession with the outcome was the very reason for his defeat.

“When you think ‘I have to win,’ you are already thinking about the 11th point. But the game has just started. You are not present at the first point. You are playing the last point in your head. That’s why you lose,” Shukla shared the lesson he learnt from his coach. 

Shukla believes this “11th point” mindset is the biggest problem for people chasing an Oscar. 

“What should we do to win an Oscar? That’s the 11th point. If you begin with the objective of winning an Oscar, you’ve already lost focus. You cannot play for awards. You must play your game, focus on your work.”

‘We’ve become too obsessed with Oscars’: Ranvir Shorey

Actor Ranvir Shorey agreed with Shukla and said that the industry has become “too obsessed” with the Oscars. He believes that winning an award should never be the main goal for a filmmaker.

“In my view, the real problem is that we have become too obsessed with the Oscars. That’s where we are going wrong. The focus should be on your craft, on making better films. Whether you win an Oscar or not cannot be your goal,” he told ABP Live. 

He highlighted the global cinematic shifts, such as the rise of Chinese and Korean cinema, as proof that international recognition is earned through quality, and not by chasing it. 

“If you look at Oscar history, there were times when attention shifted towards Chinese cinema, then Korean cinema. But that didn’t happen because those industries were chasing Oscars,” he explained, before stressing, “It happened because the quality of their films was so strong that the world began paying attention. Once the world starts watching, the Oscars committee follows.”

Shorey further added, “You cannot manufacture a film with the sole intention of sending it to the Oscars. That’s not how it works, and that’s not how it should work.”

The Road To The Oscars

The disappointment around Homebound comes from how close it came to winning that shiny, golden award. The Oscar selection is a long, multi-step process that begins with submissions of nearly 100 films from across the world. These are narrowed down to a shortlist of 15 films, a stage Homebound did reach. It, however, missed out on a spot in the final nominations that will officially compete for the gold statuette on Oscar night.

The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15, 2026, at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, with Conan O’Brien returning as host.

On the work front, Saurabh Shukla and Ranvir Shorey currently appear together in Bindiya Ke Bahubali Season 2, streaming on Amazon MX Player. The first season premiered on August 8, 2025. Directed by Raj Amit Kumar, the new season delves deeper into the dark world of the Davan crime family