Earlier this week, Letterboxd, the film cataloguing social platform, unveiled its list of 500 top films. The exhaustive list, curated by one of its patrons, features the highest-rated films on the platform, ranked by user ratings and popularity. However, as Indian users noted that only 9 films from the country made the cut, many felt disappointed that the world’s largest film industry was underrepresented.
Letterboxd’s Top 500 films
The Letterboxd’s Top 500 Films list is included on the site’s official lists section. Curated by patron Dave Vis, the list “ranks narrative feature films by average member rating,” the platform states. Masaki Kobayashi’s acclaimed Japanese film Harakiri tops the list, followed by the same director’s The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer. Hollywood courtroom drama 12 Angry Men rounds off the top 3. The top 10 also includes iconic films such as Seven Samurai, The Godfather Part 2, Shawshank Redemption, and City of God.
Only 9 Indian films make the cut
However, the first Indian film on the list only reaches the 93rd spot. It is Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar, the final chapter of the legendary filmmaker’s Apu trilogy. The other two films of the series – Pather Panchali and Aparajito – follow at 139 and 211. These are the only Indian films in the top 300. Six other titles follow between 301 and 500 – Meiyazhagan (310), RRR (324), Gangs of Wasseypur 2 (339), Kumbalangi Nights (357), 3 Idiots (479), and 12th Fail (496).
After the list surfaced online, many remarked on the lack of Indian films. On Reddit, one person wrote, “All are deserved, but we are definitely not represented enough.” Many called it ‘ignorant’ that a lot of good Indian films did not make the cut. “Nayagan not being in it is weird imo. It was always jumping in and out of the 250 spot, and now it’s just not on there at all.” Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan was named by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 films of all time a couple of decades ago. Another Indian cinephile added, “No Guru Dutt film is what made me disappointed and no Bollywood classic but 12th Fail…no wayyy I mean 12th Fail was a pretty solid moviee but there are way more good movies that deserve to be here more than that.”
Others argued that it is the methodology that has hurt classic Indian films such as Mother India, Pyaasa, and Nayakan. “The ratings are highly skewed by a global audience who rated RRR higher, especially the Western audience,” argued one. Another reasoned that some films were missing because “they upped the minimum no of ratings required to consider the film in the top 500 list.”
How the list was chosen
Letterboxd listed the criteria required for a film to be in the top 500. It states that films must be feature-length (over 40 minutes) and have a festival premiere, theatrical distribution, or a professional streaming release. All documentaries, TV shows, recuts, or plays are excluded, but TV movies are included. But most importantly, a film must have received at least 25,000 ratings on Letterboxd to be eligible. This ruled out many Indian classic films.