Will Sangh Parivar scuttle Payal Kapadia shot at Oscars ?

 

Kerala’s Shenoy Theatre  Kochi and Rana Daggubatti Spirit Media are making it possible for Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine as Light to enter the Oscars as an Indian entry. We had written about how an Indian film is going to be Oscar entry as France’s read https://southfilmy.blogspot.com/2024/09/modi-stalin-vie-to-host-rajini-50th.html) and Kerala reactions to the Cannes win ( https://southfilmy.blogspot.com/2024/05/kerala-story-of-indias-win-at-cannes.html ) . Now what we dread is the political play that will likely play out when the film comes before the FFI ( Film Federation of India ) jury.

The reason for the film  to need a release in India is  that Oscars rule says that film in Foreign Language category should have 7 days screening and as paid ones at a theater in a country of origin or another eligible country, provided it is not USA. It should also have a release before September 30^th. Now the film is releasing in France only in October first week and so it cannot be submitted from that country. Instead, France has presented Emilia Perez which won the Jury prize. As the film has Malayalam – Hindi dialogue and fulfill the condition that more than 50% of track should be non-English and that one of the Producer is an Indian, the film with a Malayalam title will get released on September 21 in Shenoys. It will fulfill the rule that the film should be released before September 30 this year.

To beat the deadline, the film was certified on September 10^th and now the iconic Kochi theatre has come forward. Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Azeez Nedumangad are the three Malayalee actors in the film.

Now fulfilling this condition is not enough. For 86^th Academy Award, we overlooked The Lunchbox which was nominated at BAFTA and send The Good Road. In 95^th Academy award we send The Last Show and bypassed SSR RRR which was already creating waves in the West. RRR came with Best Original Song.

As a twitterati Yellow stone Dragon posted - Imagine if after everything that's happened, the desi jury sends...say Article 370 instead of All We Imagine as Light as India's Oscar nominee. Coz we did send Jeans that one year. And, also Reshma Aur Sheera before that.

Distributors generally treat such films as one for niche audience and do not buy them and no production company comes forward to bankroll such films. However given that Payal in 2015 as student of Pune Film Institute had gone on a hunger strike over appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as President, she was suspended and the money that was due to her as scholarship was not given . She had to move the court to get it. The jury could go by this background and not the Cannes story.

After the Grand Prix win, PM Modi and including Gajendra ( not anymore in FTII) had praised Payal. Joining the chorus was Madhavan present FTII President. Wonder why commie friends in Kerala did not open up State owned theatres for this film ? Anyway as we can hope now= jahanbakshi on X posted this :