It was Riteish's birthday on Tuesday
entertainment1 day ago
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta and Grammy-winning composer Ricky Kej have voiced their criticism of the Film Federation of India (FFI) after Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies, India's official entry for Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards, failed to make it to the Oscars shortlist.
Mehta took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his disappointment. He shared a screenshot of the shortlisted films in the Best International Feature category and questioned India's film "selection" process.
"Film Federation of India does it again! Their strike rate and selection of films year after year is impeccable," he wrote.
Ricky Kej also shared his thoughts on X, writing: "When are we going to realise... year after year... we are choosing the wrong films? There are so many excellent movies made, and we should be winning the #InternationalFeatureFilm category every year!" he wrote.
"Unfortunately, we live in a 'Mainstream Bollywood' bubble, where we cannot look beyond films that we ourselves find entertaining. Instead, we should just look for good films made by filmmakers who are uncompromising in their art... low budget or big budget... star or no star... just great artistic cinema. Below is the poster of #LaapataaLadies. I am sure most Academy voting members dismissed the film just by looking at these," he added.
In September, the Film Federation of India, led by Jahnu Barua, selected Laapataa Ladies from a list of 29 films in several Indian languages, including Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light and the National Award-winning Aattam.
While Laapataa Ladies is out of the race, Santosh, directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, is still in contention as the United Kingdom's official entry. Apart from this, Guneet Monga's live-action short film Anuja has been shortlisted.
ALSO READ:
It was Riteish's birthday on Tuesday
entertainment1 day ago
The actor joins Neve Campbell, alongside new cast members Isabel May, Celeste O'Connor, Asa Germann, Mckenna Grace and Sam Rechner
entertainment1 day ago
US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro presented the medal to Cruise
entertainment1 day ago
The 54th IFFR will start on January 30 with 'Fabula'
entertainment1 day ago
15 films have been selected for the Oscar shortlist in this category
entertainment1 day ago
The legacy of Raj Kapoor, one of Bollywood's brightest luminaries, shines bright
entertainment1 day ago
The filmmaker, whose latest release 'I Want to Talk' stars Abhishek Bachchan, on his knack for finding magic in the mundane
entertainment1 day ago
Says issues such as substance abuse aren't confined to the industry
entertainment2 days ago