Veteran actor Anupam Kher, directors Zoya Akhtar, and Anurag Kashyap are among the 842 new members invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in its latest push to become more inclusive.

Kher has an extensive career in both Hindi cinema as well as Hollywood films, while Akhtar, who has been invited in the directors’ category, most recently directed Gully Boy. Kashyap has been invited in the Short Films and Feature Animation category.

Lunchbox writer-director Ritesh Batra is also a part of the new invitee’s list. Indian origin actor Archie Punjabi and Late Night director Nisha Ganatra are also on the list.

In the Visual Effects department, Sherry Bharda of Hichki fame and Srinivas Mohan, best known for his work on 2.0 and Baahubali: The Beginning, have been invited.

The Academy, which is behind the annual Oscar Awards, has invited members from 59 countries and half of them are women. With this, the overall percentage of women in the Academy has increased from 25 percent in 2015 to 32 percent this year.

The overall membership of people of color has doubled from 2015 and currently stands at 16 percent and in 2019 batch, they constitute 29 percent of the total invitees.

Among the invited, 8,42,21 are Oscar winners, while 82 members is Oscar nominees.

The organization had invited 928 new members in 2018 which included Indian names such as Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Tabu and Madhuri Dixit.

By Sowmya Sangam