Los Angeles, Mar 16: Veteran Bollywood actor Dharmendra, who passed away in November 2025, was not mentioned in the ‘In Memoriam’ segment at the 98th Academy Awards.
The tribute segment at this year’s Academy Awards ran about 15 minutes longer than in previous ceremonies and included special remembrances for Hollywood legends Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton and Robert Redford. Despite the extended runtime, Dharmendra’s name did not appear in the broadcast tribute.
The Sholay star, however, was included in the official online memorial list released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The list also featured five other Indian film personalities — actors B. Saroja Devi, Manoj Kumar, Jayasree Kabir, Kota Srinivasa Rao and documentary filmmaker S. Krishnaswamy.
Earlier in the awards season, Dharmendra was honoured at the 79th BAFTA Awards held at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2026, where he was the only Indian actor included in the ‘In Memoriam’ montage.
In past ceremonies, the Oscars have occasionally paid tribute to Indian film personalities. At the 90th Academy Awards in 2018, cinema icons Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi were honoured in the montage, with a musical tribute performed by Eddie Vedder.
More recently, at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021, actor Irrfan Khan and Oscar-winning costume designer Bhanu Athaiya were also remembered in the segment.
Other personalities reportedly absent from the broadcast tribute this year included Brigitte Bardot, James Van Der Beek, Eric Dane, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Bud Cort, known for the film Harold and Maude.
“It’s been an unimaginably hard year where we’ve lost a lot of icons and titans of the film industry. So yes, we are going to expand the ‘In Memoriam’ because it feels so important that we do a tribute worthy of the people we’ve lost this year,” Oscars producer Katy Mullan told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the ceremony. (Agency)
