Vidhu Vinod Chopra must be on cloud 9 as his multi-starrer film ‘Eklavya’ has been chosen by Film Federation of India (FFI) as its official entry to the arguably most prominent award function – Oscars.
Sources close to the industry say that many of the industry insiders are unhappy with the jury’s decision of choosing Eklavya as its official entry to Oscars as they feel it might not appeal to the international audience and many other films excelled Eklavya.
Ten notable releases of this year was screened for analysis by Jury and the final tie was between Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya and debutante director Bhavna Talwar’s Dharm. Some of the so-called veteran of the jury felt that Bhavna Talwar lacked in financial resource and experience to promote ‘Dharm’ at the Oscars and pinned down Eklavya as its official entry.
Vinod Pande who chaired this year’s selection committee, says, “It’s true. I cannot deny this perception as we tend to become parochial in our judgments. Several other factors seeped in during the discussion and deliberation. But I sincerely feel that Dharm would have got the Oscar for us. Unfortunately, I had to take a collective decision instead of an individual one.”
Do you agree with the jury’s decision of making Eklavya India’s official entry to the most coveted Oscars?