Most industrywallahs anticipated that the Irrfan Khan-Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer The Lunchbox would be India’s official entry to the Oscars. Sadly that didn’t happen – Gyan Correa’s Gujarati film The Good Road made it instead. But that’s how it works, doesn’t it?
There is no doubt that first time filmmaker Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox is a gem. The movie has impressed both the critics and the audience – not just on home turf, but at various international film festivals. No wonder then that the makers of The Lunchbox pinned their hopes of winning an Oscar firmly on little jewel. So it came as a shock when Gyan Correa’s debut Gujarati movie The Good Road was nominated as India’s official entry at next year’s Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category. Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap took to micro-blogging site Twitter to vent their anger. “Really shocked and disappointed.’The Lunchbox’ had every factor working in its favour, we may have just lost our golden chance. Sad,” posted KJo. The Gangs of Wasseypur director shared the same sentiment and tweeted, “Feeling very, very disappointed, can’t comment on the film I have not seen, but it better make it to final five… I hope and pray I am wrong and it actually is a film that knocks the socks off everyone.”
While Karan and Anurag’s disappointment is justified, wethinks there is no use getting miffed over the nomination. After all, the Film Federation of India (FFI) has proved time and again that there’s no value given to talent in this country (ironically, a line from The Lunchbox). Last year the secret panel picked Barfi! over Paan Singh Tomar – what were they smoking? Earlier, films like Eklavyaand Paheli were sent to the Oscars and till date we fail to understand why. So why is everyone making such a fuss about something that nobody is going to pay any attention to, we wonder. KJo,Kashyap and their buddies in arms should be glad that at least movies aren’t being sent to the Academy Awards on the basis of box office success. If that was the case, this year it would have been tough to beat Chennai Express!
