Criticising Bollywood's craze for Oscars, award-winning Australian filmmaker Paul Cox has described Indian films as a celebration of total madness with elements of fun, fantasy and innocence.
"Bollywood has a sense of fun, fantasy and also an element of innocence. It is a celebration of total madness. I would prefer a Bollywood film to a Hollywood one," said Cox, who is shooting his next film in Kerala with Shahana Goswami and Seema Biswas next year.
The 73-year-old director said Bollywood should ignore the American dream of winning an Oscar.
"It is nothing but the America's way to make money. Do you think they would like to see Bollywood a part of this? Oscars should be ignored by the rest of the world film industry including Bollywood. I do not understand this pathetic adulation about the American awards," he said.
"Bollywood has been imitating this mad example of American dream and it is now out of reach," said Cox, who admires the works of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen.
Cox is well known for his humanistic oriented films and is a cancer survivor. His latest project is a film on organ transplantation – "Force Of Destiny"- which will be shot in Kerala next year.
"It is a story about a person with liver cancer. During this journey he meets an Indian woman with whom he falls in love. It is about a sense of loss and also survival. In the end he receives a liver transplant," Cox said.