Scene from Suriya’s Jai Bhim makes it to Oscars YouTube channel; first Tamil film to earn honour

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today uploaded a scene from actor-producer Suriya’s acclaimed Tamil film Jai Bhim (2021) to its official YouTube channel Oscars under the section, ‘Scene at the Academy’.

The gut-wrenching scene is the opening sequence of Jai Bhim, which was produced by Suriya himself who plays activist-lawyer Chandru in the movie.

Jai Bhim review: Suriya's film is a hard-hitting story of police brutality and the fight for the oppressed

The scene throws the spotlight on a group of people being released from a local jail. Their families are waiting patiently to receive them. As they emerge from the jail, an officer asks them their caste. Those from the lowest, most downtrodden castes are told to stay back, to be handed over to various local police stations which pay off the prison staff for supplying them 'suspects' in pending cases.

Jai Bhim, which was premiered directly on Amazon Prime Video last year, shines the spotlight on the hardworking and guileless lives of an oppressed scheduled tribe whose members, with no land to call their own nor a proper roof over their heads, find joy in the simple things in life.

The film also stars Prakash Raj, Rao Ramesh, Rajisha Vijayan and Lijomol Jose.

Talking about being part of the movie and producing it under his own 2D Entertainment banner, Suriya had said that he was proud to present this story of “courage and faith in pursuit of justice”. The film featured the actor in the role of a lawyer fighting for lands for tribal communities.

Jai Bhim was Suriya's second direct-to-OTT release after Soorarai Pottru (2020). It was also his third production venture after Raame Aandalum Raavane Aandalum (2021) and Udanpirappe (2021) to take the OTT release route.

Upon the film’s release, a section of the audience took offence to one brief scene in the movie in which a calendar shot featured the symbol of an Other Backward Class group. The makers then replaced the symbol with a picture of the goddess of wealth Lakshmi.

Correction, 05:45pm: The headline for the report was modified as the earlier one seemed to suggest that the Jai Bhim scene had been added to the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library.