Hrithik Roshan, Alia Bhatt, Neeta Lulla among 819 film industry personalities worldwide invited to join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Last year, when the then President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,

John Bailey

, visited India, he said that the Oscars voting body will push to diversify Academy membership. A year later, now several members of the Indian film fraternity have been invited to join the Academy Awards. On Tuesday,

the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

announced the list of new invitees. The list includes Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Alia Bhatt, documentary filmmaker Shirley Abraham, filmmakers Nishtha Jain and Amit Madheshiya, film score composer Nainita Desai, casting directors Nandini Shrikent and Tess Joseph, costume designer Neeta Lulla, visual effects supervisors Vishal Anand and Sandeep Kamal, screenwriter and producer Sabrina Dhawan, producer V Senthil Kumar.

We look forward to continuing to foster an Academy that reflects the world around us in our membership: Academy CEO
Other renowned names who have been invited include American actresses Awkwafina , Eva Longoria, Zendaya, among others. They are among the 819 persons from the film industry from across the world who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among these invitees, those who accept the membership will be able to vote at the 93rd Academy Awards, which is scheduled for April 25, 2021.
Dawn Hudson, Academy CEO, said in a statement, “We take great pride in the strides we have made in exceeding our initial inclusion goals set back in 2016, but acknowledge the road ahead is a long one. We are committed to staying the course...We look forward to continuing to foster an Academy that reflects the world around us in our membership, our programs, our new museum, and in our awards.” The statement adds, “Additionally, the membership status of all artists’ representatives (agents) will change from associates to members-at-large. As members-at-large, agents will now have Oscars voting privileges.”

Academy of Motion Pictures is committed to promote diversity: John Bailey during his last year's India visit
Last year, during an interaction at Siri Fort, John Bailey had said, "We are looking for increasing Academy membership in diversity, but we are not doing it at the expense of quality. We discovered that because we were so Hollywood-centric for so long that there are thousands and thousands of filmmakers around the world who have been making films for 30/40/50 years, but were never invited by the Academy. There are great filmmakers everywhere, and we need to acknowledge them, and their films need to be seen irrespective of gender, race or ethnicity."

John Bailey during his last visit to India had said that Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is committed to promote diversity

After John Bailey's Mumbai visit, it was also reported that

the Oscar Academy

will be opening an office in Mumbai, but during his interaction in Delhi, when he was asked about it, Bailey clarified that it's an extraordinary idea which can be developed, but he can't say anything else on the issue. "The issue of opening an Academy office is something that has been talked about a lot, it has been tossed around since we have been here. I think it is an extraordinary idea. But the Academy is not a corporation, it is a member-based organisation. The decisions are made by administration and the staff along with the 54 members of boards of governor. There is an Academy office in London that reaches out to the European countries, we also have an office and staff in New York dealing with members on the east coast. There are hundreds of members in these offices, right now - there's a little more than two dozen Indian members at the Academy. This idea can be developed."
Currently, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Anupam Kher are Academy members.