"Mother India" has been described as "perhaps India's most revered film", a "cinematic epic", a "flag-bearer of Hindi cinema and a legend in its own right", Mehboob Khan's "magnum opus" and an "all-time blockbuster", which ranks highly among India's most successful films. It was in continuous distribution, being played in theatres for more than three decades; the record ended in the mid-1990s with the advent of satellite television and a change in Indian film-viewing habits. "Mother India" belongs to only a small collection of films, including "Kismet" (1943), "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), "Sholay" (1975) "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" (1994), and "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995) which are repeatedly watched throughout India and are viewed as definitive Hindi films with cultural significance. It is also among the only three Indian films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (the others being "Salaam Bombay!" and "Lagaan"). The "Hindustan Times" (in 2007) identifies the "film's pungent social references" which are "too harsh to be sold at a profit today. But this heartrending tale filled Indians with hope and pride then." The film was remade in the Telugu language as "Bangaru Talli" in 1971, and in Tamil as "Punniya Boomi" in 1978.