Broadcast Executive Rob Mills Defends Academy’s Decision To Omit Names After Indians Upset With Dharmendra’s Exclusion

Oscars 2026 has been in the news for multiple reasons. From “One Battle After Another,” actor Sean Penn skipping the ceremony to Javier Bardem’s small anti-war speech, it made news all over. The Memoriam segment was also hugely debated in the media. They missed a lot of names like James Van Der Beek, Eric Dane, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Brigitte Bardot, Bud Cort, George Wendt and IMAX pioneer David Keighley. They also did not mention the name of Dharmendra, which angered Indian fans. Rob Mills, who is the broadcast executive, spoke about the segment to Variety US. 

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Rob Mills, Walt Disney Television’s EVP of unscripted and alternative entertainment spoke about the segment at length, which was called out for omitting some famous names. He said the final list was the Academy's call but it is a tough job even for them. Mills was quoted as saying to Variety US, “I think it’s the hardest thing they possibly do. It always is hard when they are sort of villainised for this. Yes, there are always people who are left out. Unfortunately, we’re losing more and more people, and especially, we’re losing legendary people every year, so it is probably the hardest needle to thread. I do think what they did last night might have been the best In Memoriam in the history of the Oscars."

He said Hollywood lost two legends like Robert Redford and Diane Keaton in 2025. Mills said the same producers who worked on Oscars 2025 were part of this year’s telecast so it was easier. He added, “When you lose people like that … the In Memoriam really needs to be really, really done; these are legendary names for losing. And then obviously the tragedy with Rob and Michelle Reiner was just awful.” In December 2025, everyone was shocked to know that filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were found murdered in their home in Los Angeles. Mills added that everyone was thinking how to do The Memoriam segment after this tragedy. He told Variety US, “When that happened, I think that’s when they started to really think about, ‘Okay, how is this going to take shape? What are we going to do?’... It’s a big task that I think [Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan] met the moment beautifully.”

The 98th Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Indians were disappointed to see Dharmendra’s name missing from the list. The screen icon worked in Indian cinema from 1960 and passed away in November 2025.