TNI Bureau: Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra starrer, Anurag Basu’s‘Barfi’ has been chosen as India’s official entry for the Oscars 2013. Following a tough competition among 20 Bollywood films, ‘Barfi’ was named as India’s entry in the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category at the 85th Academy Awards, the Oscars in February next year.
However, the actual time to celebrate is yet to come as per the director of the film. So far only three Indian films – Mehboob Khan’s ‘Mother India’, Mira Nair’s ‘Salam Bombay!’ and Aamir Khan’s ‘Lagaan’ have reached to the final round of Oscar nominations.
Ranbir has indicated that they would seek advice from Aamir Khan in case the film makes it to the final round as he can advice the best as his film ‘Lagaan’ had arrived at the final round of the Academy Awards.
The 85th Academy Awards will happen on February 24, 2013 and the nominations will be announced on January 10. ‘Barfi’ is the touching anecdote of two physically challenged characters, a deaf and mute boy and an autistic girl. The film is a evenhanded blend of love, romance and comedy.
After its release on September 14, the film has been highly appreciated by the reviewers, critics as well as audience and the film has earned more than Rs. 60 crore. India has submitted films for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category since 1957. Mehboob Khan’s mother India was the first film to be sent to the Oscar in the above category and it succeed to reach to the final round to be nominated finally.
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The film made it to the final shortlist and was nominated among four other films in the category. The film came close to winning the Academy Award but lost to ‘Nights of Cabiria’ by a single vote.
India has sent over forty films to the competition. The chosen films along with their English subtitles are sent to the Academy, where they are screened for the jury.
The list of films those have been sent in this context includes films from different Indian languages, while maximum of the submissions were in Hindi. Tamil films were submitted by the committee on eight occasions. Two submissions were made in Bengali, Marathi and Malayalam while a Telugu film has been selected once.
Tamil actor Kamal Haasan has represented India the most, seven times in this competition as an actor, one of which was directed by him, the film ‘Hey Ram’. The next in the list is Bengali director Satyajit Ray, who has represented India three times (as director).
We look forward for ‘Barfi’ to make it to the final round and also to win the award. If this happens, that will be the real time to celebrate and India will make a history.