<P> Mother India , its star Nargis , and the director Khan received many awards and nominations . Nargis won the Filmfare Best Actress Award in 1958 and became the first Indian to receive the Best Actress award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in present - day Czech Republic . Mother India won the Filmfare Award for Best Film and scooped several other Filmfare awards including Best Director for Khan , Best Cinematographer for Faredoon Irani , and Best Sound for R. Kaushik . In 1958 , the film became India 's first submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was chosen as one of the five nominations for the category . The international version , 120 minutes long , was sent for the Oscars . Additionally , this version had English subtitles , and dropped Mehboob Productions ' logo , which featured the Communist hammer and sickle , to appease the Academy . The 120 - minute version was later distributed in the US and UK by Columbia Pictures . The film came close to winning the Academy Award , but lost to Federico Fellini 's Nights of Cabiria by a single vote . Khan was utterly disappointed at not winning the award . `` He had seen the other films in the fray and believed Mother India was far superior to them '' recalled Sunil Dutt years later . It also won two awards at the 5th National Film Awards in 1957 : an All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film and Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film in Hindi . </P>
nominated in the best foreign film category at the oscars mother india lost to
Nights of Cabiria