The film industry has unanimously hailed the Film Federation of India for choosing political satire Newton as India’s official entry in the foreign language category for the 90th Academy Awards. But the announcement has come as a huge disappointment for Priyanka Chopra and her mother, Madhu Chopra, who were hoping that their award-winning film, Ventilator, which had received a standing ovation at the New York Film Festival, and was among the 26 entries in the race to the Oscars, would be chosen.
Hopes dashed
Both Priyanka and her mother were confident and hopeful that the film would make it to the final list. In fact, the actress had also chalked an action plan for the pre-Oscar selection drive, to rally for the film in the US. According to director Rajesh Mhapuskar, the entire team was eagerly waiting for the verdict on September 22. He recalled Madhu’s excitement when she called him up the night before the verdict was announced, “I told her not to worry, assuring her that only the best film would make it. We were a bit disappointed when we learnt about the verdict, the next day.”
PC had a lot riding on it
He added that Priyanka was determined to leave no stone unturned to push her film, had it been selected. Although he hadn’t spoken to the actress Mhapuskar said, “I guess, Priyanka must be even more disappointed because she was always ambitious about the film. Had it been selected, she would have ensured that it was the most-talked-about film in the run to the Oscars, especially since she is already an established name there. Ventilator was always the favourite baby of their banner.” He added that he was eager to watch Newton, “I have heard good things about it and am looking forward to seeing it.”
Why Newton won...
Ventilator, which wooed audiences at a record number of film festivals over the world, had also bagged three National awards in April this year, including Best Director award for Rajesh Mhapuskar. It is not known whether Ventilator featured in the final list of the three films selected by the 14-member jury but sources reveal that a good number of jury members voted in favour of Ventilator. When contacted Mr Supran Sen said, “It was a unanimous decision. There were titles like Dangal and Mukti Bhavan which were part of the list.”
