Mumbai,Jan 2: Veteran actor Anupam Kher, whose Hollywood movie Silver Linings Playbook is in the Oscar race, thinks Indian movies never shine at the Academy awards because the industry is suffering from "Tarantino disease".
The actor, who has a supporting role in Silver Linings Playbook - which stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, says Indian cinema needs to concentrate on original scripts.
"We are a very young country in terms of entertainment, its only now the audience is getting more opened to newer kind of cinema. We need to compete with ourself and also the bigger question is how many original movies are we making? We are suffering from Tarantino disease," Kher said referring to the directors inspired by the American filmmaker.
"We also need to learn to applaud others. We don't appreciate others equally. What I noticed overseas was the kind of respect they have for other person's work," Anupam said when asked why Indian films failed to do well at the Oscars.
The 57-year-old recently attended the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Award in Los Angeles, where the film was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a cast.
Anupam said sharing the table with De Niro was surreal.
"It was surreal, sitting in Shrine auditorium with likes of Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper and Chris Tucker. I feel proud of being part of a movie which has 8 Oscar nominations and I feel even more proud to represent my country at such award functions."
The actor was in the city to promote his upcoming film Special 26, which reunites him with director Neeraj Pandey after A Wednesday. The film hits theatres on February 8 and apart from Anupam, stars Akshay Kumar, Jimmy Shergill, Manoj Bajpai and Kajal Aggarwal.
Anupam said reuniting with Pandey was a privilege. "It's a privilege to work with him again. It is a tongue and cheek thriller set in 80s, where many people were raided by various fake agencies and people did not report back because black money was involved," he said.
