Motion Picture Academy invites 928 new members, including Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Tabu

Shah Rukh Khan, Tabu and Naseeruddin Shah are among a record 928 new members invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as the body behind the Oscars seeks to enhance diversity.

In an announcement, the Academy said the new members will increase the diversity in a major way as 49 per cent of its invitees are female and 38 per cent are people of colour. Artistes from 59 countries have been invited as members. India features prominently in the list of the new invitees that also includes Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor and Ali Fazal.

Other Indian celebrities who have been invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are:

Soumitra Chatterjee

Madhabi Mukherjee

Aditya Chopra

Guneet Monga

Anil Mehta

Dolly Ahluwalia

Manish Malhotra

Subrata Chakraborty

Amit Ray

Ballu Saluja

Usha Khanna

Sneha Khanwalkar

A R Rahman, Irrfan Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are already Academy members.

The Academy has been actively working to introduce more diversity in its voting to avoid a controversy like 2016 when the Oscars were dubbed “white” for failing to recognise talents of colour. The Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal in October last year further shaped the narrative in Hollywood with women coming forward and demanding better representation through #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

The Academy seems to have taken these changes into consideration by diversifying its membership.

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