Eklavya takes Official Entry to the Oscars

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya has been selected as the official entry in the Best Foreign Film Category for the Oscars.

eklavya

The film which marked the return of Vidhu Vinod Chopra as a director was a multistarrer with likes like Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Jackie Shroff and Boman Irani.

The theme of the movie is more like that of the Shakespearean era where, the Royal Guard played by Amitabh Bachchan protects the last empire and saves the kings secret and life.

The movie was selected over Shahrukh Khan's Chak De India, Akshay Khanna's Gandhi My Father, Dharam etc. There seems to be a disagreement amongst other filmmakers on Eklavya being selected as the official entry.

However, for Vidhu Vinod Chopra this is not his first stint at the Oscars. The director - producer has tasted the Oscar fever with his non fictional film An Encounter with Faces and Parinda earlier.

Last year saw the entry of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Lage Raho Munnabhai as an independent entry into the Oscars. With gratitude and excitement he says,

I can say that it is just the beginning for us. Now the real work starts, I just hope that we go there and make India proud.

I am supposed to go to New York and Boston for the screening of the film. I have an office in Los Angeles and now I will hire some people to take care of the publicity of the film.

Though there was lot of criticism in the country about the movie, the film was highly appreciated in the West and was given credit to various details focused in the movie.

However, many filmmakers within the film fraternity are objecting to the selection of Eklavya as the official entry considering that it was not as spectacular as some other films made in the last year. Film makers are currently questioning the creditability of the movie and the Jury who boil down to the final choice.

Bhawan Talwar whose film Dharam was one of the contenders said,

There has to be some accountability on these matters. Every year we send the wrong film. The jury members are serving their own agendas. I've seen Eklavya. I was bored. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. Apart from big budgets and big stars what does Eklavya have?

With all sorts of speculations hovering around the films selection as the official entry the Jury were thinking likewise. Sudhir Mishra one of the Jury members stated that he believes that the movie has high chance of being selected in the top 5 nominations at the Oscars.

The decision was made collectively and with the consensus of all the jury members. It has been clearly stated by the jury that there is no politics involved or any kind of bias. it is a fair deal as per the Jury.

Only time can tell whether the selection was the right one or wrong one. Meanwhile Vidhu Vinod Chopra will be focusing on building the buzz around the movie and the other fraternity filmmakers will be aiming at making another mark in Indian cinema.

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