'Village Rockstars', an Assamese film, is India's Oscar entry
In the rat race to Oscars 2019, 'Village Rockstars', an Assamese film has become India's official entry in 'Best Foreign Language film' category. "Village Rockstars is the closest film made by international standards. Very proud to select this film and send it to the Oscars," Jury member Anant Mahadevan told Indian Express. The film is directed by Rima Das. Here are more details.
Rima Das's film is about a young girl who is an inspiring guitarist. In a world, where women are questioned for everything, this 10-year-old Dhunu (Bhanita Das), who belongs to a remote village in Assam, goes to mark her print in the world of music. "I did not have any storyboard for Village Rockstars," director Rima Das had earlier told The Indian Express.
"Since there was no script or crew, I did not use any artificial light. I shot in the magic light - in the morning and afternoon when the sunlight is not harsh. All the actors, barring well-known Assamese actor Kulada Bhattyacharya, are from my village," Rima said.
29 films including Alia Bhatt's 'Raazi', Deepika's 'Padmaavat' along with 'Hichki', 'October', 'Love Sonia', 'Gulabjaam', 'Mahanati', 'Pihu', 'Kadvi Hawa', 'Bhogda', 'Revaa', 'Bioscopewala', '102 Not Out', 'PadMan', 'Bhayanakam', 'Ajji', 'Nude', 'Gali Guliiyan' and recently released 'Manto' were submitted as nominations for Indian entries to Oscar 2019.
Apart from India, a few other countries have also announced their candidates for the awards. While Lebanon has selected 'Capharnaum', Indonesia picked the feminist neo-western flick 'Marlina the Murder In Four Acts' for the 91st Academy Awards.
Rajkummar and Pankaj Tripathi-starrer 'Newton' was pitched as India's official entry for the 2018 Oscars. However, the film failed to even make it to the list of the final nine films picked for the voting round. Only 3 Indian films have made it to the last round till now: Mehboob Khan's 'Mother India' (1957), Mira Nair's 'Salaam Bombay!' (1988), and Ashutosh Gowariker's 'Lagaan' (2001).
While the jury claims that the movie is at par with the international standards, but it remains to be seen if it will win the hearts at the 91st Academy Awards which is scheduled to be held on February 24, 2019.
