Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Manish Malhotra invited to join Academy Awards body

The group behind the prestigious Oscars film awards has invited 928 artists and executives to join the Academy Awards body. A number of famous Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Ali Fazal, Tabu, Manish Malhotra among others, made it on the diverse list which included stars like Emilia Clarke, Mindy Kaling, rapper Kendrick Lamar, and author J.K. Rowling.
In a bid to pursue their ambitious ‘inclusion goals’ the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, have picked over 49 per cent women and 38 per cent of people of colour, according to statistics provided by the organization.The move is part of a plan to double the number of women and ethnic minorities in the Academy by 2020.
The recent #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo movements criticised the body for its overwhelmingly white male membership. Among those invited to join the Academy as part of its push to become more diverse are female cinematographers from India, Mexico and France.
‘Secret Superstar’ Cinematographer Anil Mehta along with ‘Haider’ Costume Designer Dolly Ahluwalia and Designer Subrata Chakraborty, veteran Bengali actors Soumitra Chatterjee ('Bridge') and Madhabi Mukherjee ('Charulata'), producer Guneet Monga and editor Ballu Salujaalso feature on the new member’s list. Musicians Usha Khanna and Sneha Khanwalkar of 'Gangs of Wasseypur' represent India in the musicians section.
Oscar-winner A R Rahman, actor Irrfan Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are already Academy members.
If all 928 of the Academy's invitations are accepted, female membership will rise to 31 per cent from 28 per cent, while ethnic minority members will increase to 16 per cent from 13 per cent, according to the academy. It would also raise the number of voting participants for the Oscars film awards to a new high of about 9,300 people, the New York Times reports.
Hollywood's awards seasons have been marked by controversy with the #MeToo campaign, which exposed and raised awareness of sexual harassment, and the #OscarsSoWhite movement.
In 2016, actors including Marvel star Chadwick Boseman said they were inspired to join the Academy because of the strength of the #OscarsSoWhite diversity campaign, which began with a tweet by activist film producer Rita Wilson.
"I felt obligated to join," said Boseman, who plays superhero Black Panther in the Marvel films.
Wilson said at the time that it was right to join because the Academy was now "open to hearing what the issues were".
Other women stars on the list include US actors Jada Pinkett Smith, Amy Schumer, Ann Dowd and Christine Baranski, and comedians Tiffany Haddish and Sarah Silverman. Listed notable male stars include African-American comedian Dave Chappelle, Oscar-nominated ‘Black Panther’ actor Daniel Kaluuya and French-American actor Timothée Chalamet, who starred in the film ‘Call Me By Your Name’.