Ram Gopal Varma should be a happy man. As he starts shooting his Sholay from Wednesday, the original “Western curry made in India” continues to be the most popular film around. Around 35 per cent of the people voting in felt that Ramesh Sippy’s 1975 blockbuster should have won an Oscar. No film was sent from India that year as an official entry. Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala won the Best Foreign Film Oscar that year edging past Andrzej Wajda’s Polish film Land of PromiseAround 25 per cent votes went to Aditya Chopra’s glittering directorial debut Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Interestingly, the Kamal Haasan-starrer Kurudhi Punal, directed by ace cinematographer PC Sreeram, was sent to the Oscars in 1995, the year DDLJ arrived at the theatres. At the Academy Awards, a Dutch film Antonia’s Line triumphed in the Best Foreign Film category ahead of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Italian favourite The Star MakerFourteen per cent of the people voting in felt that K. Asif’s grand spectacle Mughal-e-Azam should have clinched the golden statuette. But no Indian film was sent to the Oscars in 1960, three years after Mother India had made it to the final five. Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring won the Foreign Film honours that year