Suriya-starrer 'Soorarai Pottru' enters the Oscar race
Actor Suriya-starrer Tamil movie Soorarai Pottru has joined the Oscar race for this year in the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and other categories. The film, directed by Sudha Kongara, also stars Aparna Balamurli and Paresh Rawal. It saw a direct-to-digital release in November 2020 after several delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. Here are more details on this.
The film's co-producer Rajsekar Pandian announced the news. He tweeted, "Happy Republic Day! #SooraraiPottru joins OSCARS under General Category in Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Score and other categories! The film has been made available in the Academy Screening Room today (sic)."
Happy Republic Day! #SooraraiPottru joins OSCARS under General Category in Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Score other categories! The film has been made available in the Academy Screening Room today 👍🏼👍🏼 @Suriya_offl #SudhaKongara @gvprakash @TheAcademy pic.twitter.com/6Pgem7ZUSy
— Rajsekar Pandian (@rajsekarpandian) January 26, 2021
Soorarai Pottru, translated as "Hail the Brave," is loosely based on the life of Captain Gopinath, who founded the airline Air Deccan. Suriya's character Nedumaran Rajangam fulfills his dream of starting a budget airline for people from all classes. It was also selected as one of the Indian films to be screened under the Best Foreign Film category at the 78th Golden Globe Awards.
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Academy, which conducts the Oscars, has allowed movies that premiered on streaming platforms to contend for Oscars in 2021, even if they had skipped a theatrical release. Now, a film needs to be made available on the Academy Screening Room member-only streaming site within 60 days of its streaming or VOD release, according to the Academy's official website.
The movie has been produced by Suriya and Guneet Monga, under their respective banners, 2D Entertainment and Sikhya Entertainment. Interestingly, Monga's 2018 documentary Period. End of Sentence. had won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). On a related note, the critically-acclaimed Malayalam film Jallikattu has been selected as India's official entry in the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars 2021.
