Vidya Balan, Ekta Kapoor selected to vote for Oscars 2022

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Sushmita Sen

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Last updated on Jul 02, 2021, 06:37 pm

Vidya Balan, Ekta Kapoor, her mother Shobha Kapoor and Shrihari Sathe might get a chance to vote for the Academy Awards next year. This comes after The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced their names, alongside 394 others, who've joined their Class of 2021. Every year, new members are invited to vote for Oscars. This year the invitees are from 50 countries.

Check out the post by The Academy here

'Out of 395 invitees, 89 are former Oscar nominees'

Of the 395 invitees, "89 are former Oscar nominees, including 25 winners," Variety reported. It further stated that the new class consists of "46% women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 53% international from 49 countries outside the United States." Apart from the Kapoors, Sathe and Balan, Oscar award-winners Yuh-Jung Youn, Emerald Fennell and Florian Zeller have also been invited for the panel.

Balan is the only Indian actor to join The Academy

Balan's name is under the actors' category, and her films Tumhari Sulu and Kahaani are mentioned along with it. In Tumhari Sulu, she played a homemaker and a radio jockey, while in Kahaani, she portrayed a "pregnant" lady who was looking for her missing husband. Both were hits and had won several awards. She's the only Indian actor to join The Academy this year.

The mother-daughter duo feature in the producers' branch

Meanwhile, the Kapoors and Sathe join the producers' category. Ekta has been invited for her movies like Dream Girl and Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Shobha for Udta Punjab and The Dirty Picture, and Sathe for The Sweet Requiem and It Felt Like Love. A noted short films' producer, Sathe is known for his Marathi film, Ek Hazarachi Note (1000 Rupee Note).

Thanks to everyone's hardwork, says Ekta about this development

Henry Golding, Vanessa Kirby and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II invited too

Tenet star Robert Pattinson is also another new invitee, who will be joined by Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman), and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Trial of the Chicago 7). Some of the other Bollywood actors who have been invited to join the Academy in recent years were Naseeruddin Shah, Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Anil Kapoor and Tabu.