‘Writing With Fire’ Writes Oscar Ticket With Story Of Courageous Indian Women Journalists: “You’re Now A Part Of History”

deadline.com:

Writing With Fire’s Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature wasn’t just a huge achievement for directors Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas.

It was a triumph for all of India.The married couple became the first Indian filmmakers to earn a nomination in that category.“The fact that this was the first Indian documentary feature to be nominated became just such big news.

It was everywhere,” Thomas tells Deadline. “A billion people sort of erupted in joy because we’re a film-loving nation. We produce a lot of films in the year, but for a documentary — nobody remembers when was the last time the whole country got so excited… The next two days [after the nomination announcement] the phone sort of melted, with in-boxes imploding and everyone wanting a bite, and it was just crazy.”Thomas says it took a while for the gravity of the nomination to sink in.“The Academy sent us an e-mail… and it said, ‘Welcome, you’re now a part of history,’” Thomas recalls. “So when I opened that email, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s pretty powerful.’”The film has been an underdog in the Oscar race, without the backing of a big streamer or other major platform (Music Box Films released the film in domestic theaters).

And it tells a story of underdogs – the all-female staff of the newspaper Khabar Lahariya, based in Uttar Pradesh, who despite predictions they would fail have instead turned their operation into a major success in print and online.