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Mumbai: The rumpus over India's official submission to the Foreign Language Film Oscar added a new voice"that of the Film Federation of India (FFI). The Federation, whose jurors chose Gyan Correa's The Good Road over other films, including Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox, has sent an irate letter to Batra demanding an "unconditional apology" for his "derogatory remarks about the Federation and the Oscar jury".
The letter, dated 23 September and issued in the name of FFI's secretary general Supran Sen, was sent by courier on 28 September. Three of the movie's producers, Anurag Kashyap Films Private Limited, Dharma Productions, and Disney UTV (which also released the movie on 20 September), have been copied on the communication. Batra is in Goa for a script workshop organised by the National Film Development Corporation, and hadn't received the letter before he left Mumbai. None of the parties named in the letter offered their comments.
Protest erupted, first on Twitter, and then across the media, when the FFI nominated The Good Road to represent India at the Oscars next year. Batra and co-producers Kashyap, Guneet Monga and Karan Johar shared their outrage on Twitter, setting the tone for the dismay and derision that greeted the FFI's decision to send a Gujarati title few had heard of over a movie backed by warm reviews and an American distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics.
The argument made by the Batra camp, that India should only send movies worthy of impressing Academy Award selectors, was accompanied by exasperated and unflattering remarks over Twitter and Facebook about the demerits of The Good Road, the FFI, the jurors and their inability to select a film based on its marketing potential.
Goutam Ghose, the chairperson of the 16-member jury that selected The Good Road, further stirred the pot by declaring his admiration for The Lunchbox in interviews, saying that it was his favourite among the nominations. The names of the jury members are not shared with the public to prevent lobbying by interested parties.
"There is no criteria in the Academy rules that suggests that the jury should keep the marketing angle in mind while selecting, their mandate is selecting the best film which they have done according to their convictions and judgement," states the FFI letter to Batra. "You and your team have been stating time and again in various interactions in the media that once (note not if' but once!) Lunchbox is selected from India, you have been assured by Sony Classics that it will have a spectacular run in the Oscar... You in fact have even termed this selection of The Lunchbox from India as a mere technicality! Excuse me!!"
The letter asks if the movie's producers are suggesting that the selection of the Foreign Language Film at the Oscars is "rigged" in any way, and whether Sony Pictures Classics had communicated its confidence in pushing The Lunxchbox into the final list of nominations to Batra through written communication. The Federation, which represents 42 trade bodies from around the country, also criticises corruption allegations attributed to Batra and his supporters. "As you are aware, The Good Road is produced by NFDC (National Film Development Corporation), a Government of India undertaking! Are you suggesting that the I&B Ministry ie The Government of India has made a successful attempt in bribing the jurors???"
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars every year, will announce the final list of nominations across categories in January. The Oscars will be held on 2 March, 2014. India has never won a Best Foreign Film Oscar before. The Academy has shortlisted only three Indian choices in the category: Mehboob Khan's Mother India, Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! and Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan.
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