Do you know what was India's first submission for the Academy Award in Best Foreign Language category? It is none other than Mother India which set a formula for all the oppressed movies. The epic drama film directed by Mehboob Khan and starred Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raaj Kumar in lead roles completes 60 years (shashti poorthi) by today. 

Unfortunately, Mother India lost the Oscar Award by just one vote. However, it won the All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film, the Filmfare Best Film Award for 1957, and Nargis and Khan won the Best Actress and Best Director awards respectively.

The title Mother India was inspired by American author Katherine Mayo's 1927 polemical book of the same name, in which she attacked Indian society, religion and culture.

Mother India symbolically represents India as a nation in the consequences of independence, and alludes to a strong sense of nationalism and nation-building. While some authors treat Radha as the symbol of women empowerment, others see her cast in female stereotypes. 

Mother India was shot in Mumbai's Mehboob Studios and in the villages of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh states. 

The production team had initially planned to release Mother India to commemorate the tenth anniversary of India's independence on 15 August 1957, but the film was released over two months later.

It was premiered at the Liberty Cinema in Mumbai on 25 October 1957, during Diwali; it ran continuously at Liberty for over a year. It was released in Kolkata the same day and in Delhi a week later. It had reached all regions in India by the end of November. 

Government ministers and other officials were invited to the premieres, and a special screening was held in Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 23 October 1957 and the event was attended by the then President Rajendra Prasad, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi.