'The Lunchbox' out of Oscar race, Anurag Kashyap disappointed

Sep 21, 2013 IANS

New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) Gujarati film "The Good Road" has sprinted ahead of "The Lunchbox" as India's entry for the best foreign film at the Oscars. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap is "very disappointed" that his highly rated movie has not made it but he hopes the chosen film makes it to the final five.

Kashyap took to Twitter to share his disappointment soon after the announcement of the country's representative film at the prestigious awards gala was made Saturday evening.

"Feeling very very disappointed. I can't comment on the film which I have not seen, but it better make it to final five," Kashyap posted on the micro-blogging site.

"The Good Road", by debut filmmaker Gyan Correa, had won a National Award for best feature film in Gujarati earlier this year. It was chosen as India's Oscar entry by a committee appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI).

Kashyap commented: "I don't know who the federation is. But it goes to show why we completely lack the understanding to make films that can travel across borders."

The acclaimed filmmaker called for a "clean policy".

"We should then make a clean policy - you want to send the best film, then send the national award winner or send the one most likely to win," he added.

The "Gangs of Wasseypur" director termed the whole exercise of selecting a film as "pointless".

"It proves one thing - this whole exercise is pointless. We should just quietly make our films," he said.

"The Good Road" was selected over 21 films including titles like "The Lunchbox", "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", "Ship of Theseus", "English Vinglish", Malayalam film "Celluloid" and Bengali movie "Shabdo".

Filmmaker Goutam Ghose, who chaired the committee to choose the final entry, admitted that "The Lunchbox", directed by Ritesh Batra, was indeed a "strong contender".

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