Slumdog is not an Indian film

Just after Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars today, a friend and I got into a debate on whether the movie won solely because it had a "gora" at the helm of affairs. While my friend believed that it had all to do with the colour of one's skin, I begged to differ. If it had to do with whether your skin was the right shade, A R Rahman did not stand a chance for 2 Oscars he won, neither would Resul Pookutty have been so lucky.
I still have a slight problem with the movie being called an Indian movie. It was neither produced nor directed by an Indian. Sure, the far-from-the-limelight co-director is Indian and so is the theme of the movie and so is a majority of the cast, but then so was Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. Now that isn't being called an Indian film.
Manoj Night Shyamalan's Sixth Sense is not an Indian movie despite being directed by an NRI, neither was Shekar Kapur's Elizabeth movies. So why then are we vying for the Indian tag for a movie that was written by an Indian but which took a firang to make. Moreover, the film has not been nominated in the "Best Foreign Film Category", but rather in the other popular categories.
Make no mistake, am over the moon about us finally being recognised on the international arena. But then this could have happened years ago had we had a board that could decide on a movie that truly represented what Indian cinema was about. While Tare Zameen Par was an excellent movie by Indian standards, its subject line was something the rest of the world dealt with in the 60s and 70s. So in all probability they must have thought we were retards who had not understood the intricacies of a learning disorder.
We have a board that sends only Hindi films and that too crocks of poop like Eklavya and Paheli, all in the name of representing Indian culture. So now when a movie like Slumdog Millionaire has a kid literally jump into a crock of poop, we automatically claim the movie for our own. What happened to all the culture worshippers now...
We need to stop trying to ride on the success of foreigners. We are making films that are better than a Slumdog Millionaire. It is our own people who prevent it from being showcased on the international arena.
But through it all I truly applaud A R Rahman. He has done the country proud and finally put us on the international cinematic map.