As Geethu Mohandas zealously fine-tunes her Oscar campaign, the losers are complaining loudly and praising their films after the Film Federation of India selected her maiden movie, Liar’s Dice, as the country’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 87th Academy Awards, which will be held on February 22 in Los Angeles.
The criticism ranges from a “nexus” between FFI and Mohandas giving her unfair advantage to the lack of transparency in the selection process, particularly FFI’s refusal to spell out the criteria or even the names of the secret jury — barring the chairman’s.
Mohandas told tabloid! that she won’t respond to the “frivolous” charges as she is busy brainstorming ahead of the big Oscar battle in America and can’t fritter away her time or energy.
“I’m a very small fish in the big ocean of Indian cinema. So many people are very jealous and angry that my film made on such a small budget after begging and borrowing — and not theirs — will represent one of the world’s biggest movie industries at the Oscars.”
Supran Sen, FFI secretary general, said: “Controversies have erupted — but they are par for the course. Like action and reaction, the announcement of India’s official Oscar entry never fails to trigger charges and counter-charges which we take in our stride.”
Sen remarked that in a “democracy like India, everyone is entitled to his or her views and airing them”.
Leading the charge against Liar’s Dice is producer Nilesh Navlakha, whose Marathi film Fandry was one of the strongest contenders. Monhandas told tabloid! that she personally rated Fandry as the best film among the 30 that the jury picked the winner from.
Navlakha angrily told an interviewer that “he can’t help wondering how Liar’s Dice that has not been properly released for commercial screening could be selected.” He added: “I’ve heard that it [was] released in one centre in Kerala on 19 September. This kind of rushed release cannot be just a coincidence. It’s highly suspicious and FFI needs to come clean.”
One of the criteria laid down by FFI this year was that films nominated for consideration by the jury should have been released commercially between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2014, and ran for at least a week.
Sen flatly dismissed charges that FFI had tipped off the makers of Liar’s Dice to release the film a day after jury screenings had started so that it would not be disqualified on grounds that it had not been commercially released. “The charge would have had some credibility if Liar’s Dice had been produced by a big corporate house like Reliance. But the makers of Liar’s Dice are an ordinary, small production house and Liar’s Dice is their first film,” he said.
“So let me categorically clarify that FFI had nothing to do with Liar’s Dice release on September 19. It was a decision the production house took in its wisdom. And Liar’s Dice has met the commercial release criterion on its own without FFI prodding or help.”
Another vocal complainant is director Hansal Mehta, whose Shahid and Citylights were among the biggies in the fray. Mehta said: “I want to trust the process and the people initiating the process of India’s entry into the Oscars. Unfortunately, recent history and the shroud of secrecy surrounding the selection make me doubtful about the selection and its criteria. If Liar’s Dice had a legitimate wide release then I’d be happy for the film.”
Sen clarified that jury members themselves had extracted an assurance from FFI that their names would not be divulged under any circumstances — not even after the completion of their job.
“If you don’t believe me, please talk to T. Hariharan, chairman of the jury, though let me warn you that even he will not give away the names of jury members as they have themselves requested anonymity,” he said.
tabloid! called Hariharan several times but he could not be reached.
Interestingly, director Rajat Kapoor, whose Ankhon Dekhi was among the final 30, found solace in Hariharan’s statement to the Press Trust of India that, “the two films that we discussed a lot apart from Liar’s Dice were Hindi films Shahid and Ankhon Dekhi”.
Mohandas, who is flooded with congratulatory messages, has her hands full. The last date for submission of Form Number 3 — a one-and-a-half page format for disclosing every little detail about the film — is October 1, which is also the deadline for sending a digital print or DVD of her labour of love.
— S. N. M. Abdi, Indian journalist and commentator, writes across Gulf News.
