Filmworld
'Court' director 'surprised' at making Oscar cut
Mumbai, Sep 23
The news of "Court" -- a
multilingual courtroom drama -- making the cut as India's official entry
in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards,
left its director Chaitanya Tamhane "genuinely surprised".
Tamhane's
debut directorial, "Court" is a National Award-winning film, which has
won acclaim across the globe since premiering at the 71st Venice
International Film Festival last year.
On Wednesday,
actor-filmmaker Amol Palekar, who was heading the 17-member jury
appointed by Film Federation of India (FFI) to decide India's
representation for the Oscars this year, confirmed to IANS that "Court"
is the chosen one.
Tamhane is in a celebratory mood.
"At
every juncture of the film's journey, we have felt that it has given us
more than we can ever imagine. Once again, this has come as a genuine
surprise to both Vivek (actor-producer Vivek Gomber) and me.
"Ever
since we started making the film, we kept our expectations low.
Specially in this case, since these results tend to be so unpredictable,
it just felt like a nice thing to not expect too much.
"Now that
it has actually happened, we would like to thank the jury for their
decision, and to everyone who has supported the film so far."
"Court"
-- about a trial which unfolds in a lower court, where the hopes and
dreams of the city's ordinary people play out -- won the National Film
Award in the Best Feature Film category for 2014.
Featuring
impactful performances by actors Vivek Gomber, Vira Sathidar, Geetanjali
Kulkarni, Pradeep Joshi, Usha Bane and Shirish Pawar, the movie did its
fair share of rounds at foreign movie galas after premiering at the
71st Venice International Film Festival last year.
Congratulations poured in for the film's team via Twitter.
Bollywood
director Anubhav Sinha shared: "Go Mr Tamhane. I hope you get the best
marketing resources in the campaign. #Court #Oscars2016", while Hansal
Mehta wrote: "So pleased to know that the FFI committee has made its
choice for India's entry to Oscars. And for once they've chosen well!
#Court."
Actress Tillotama Shome tweeted: "India gets closest it
has ever been to winning the Oscar and getting the lady home. #Court all
the way baby! What a day", and Shilpa Shukla was also confident that
this time the "Oscar (is) coming to the India courtyard".
Last
year, "Liar's Dice", a road drama starring Geetanjali Thapa and
Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles, was selected as India's official
entry to the Best Foreign Film category of Oscars, but it failed to make
it to the top five at the Academy Awards.
The 88th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on February 28, next year.