Agencies
Mumbai, Sep 25: Eklavya , the Hindi feature film depicting a violent family saga starring Bollywood mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan , has been nominated as India's official entry for Oscar award for the best foreign movie category.
This is the third time that a film by Vidhu Vinod Chopra will be going to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His short non-fiction film ‘An Encounter with Faces’ was one of the first Indian films to be nominated for an Oscar in 1980. In 1989, ‘Parinda’ was sent to the Oscars as India's official entry.
Pahlaj Nihalani, President of Association of Motion Pictures and TV Programmes which selects the entry, said "Yes it is true that Vidhu Vinod Chopra's ‘Eklavya’ has been selected as India's official entry to the Oscars."
However, Nihalani was peeved with the jury for selecting a film "rejected by Indian masses". "It is disgraceful that the jury has selected a movie for the Oscars which has been rejected by the people. I don't see any logic behind selecting this movie when there were other deserving movies like Chak De India ," he said.
"If this is the taste of the jury, then it is better they leave the industry. ‘Eklavya’ doesn't deserves an Oscar entry. This is a clear case of partiality. The selection has been done under the influence of certain people, which is shameful," he said.
According to Nihalani, such a step will spoil the image of Indian film industry which is getting global attention now.
"The way Indian films are becoming globally recognised, wrong decisions like this will only spoil our hard-earned goodwill. This is blatant misuse of power," he said.
Produced and directed by Chopra, and also starring apart from Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan , Sanjay Dutt , Vidya Balan , Jackie Shroff , Boman Irani , Jimmy Shergill , Raima Sen and Sharmila Tagore , ‘Eklavya’ is a story set in contemporary India about a majestic fort of Devigarh, a royal dynasty that no longer rules, a King without a kingdom and a royal guard (Bachchan) who lives in a time warp and lives only to protect the fort, the dynasty, and the king.