‘Dharm’, not ‘Eklavya’, should have been Oscar entry: Pande

India’s Oscar film selection committee chairman Vinod Pande on Wednesday came out in the open with his disgust at sending a film such as ‘Eklavya’ about which “the writing was on the wall”. He said it should rather have been the controversy stirring film ‘Dharm’ that deserved to be India’s official entry for Best Foreign Film film at Oscars this year.

"The writing was on the wall when `Eklavya` was chosen as India`s official entry to Oscar despite the fact that we had a more deserving Bhavna Talwar`s film `Dharm`, which should have been our official entry," Pande told agencies. "The film was extremely relevant as it showcased the turbulent times we are living in. It depicted the vicious atmosphere created by communal fundamentalism. Yet it was overlooked in favour of a big banner film. The result is for everyone to see," he said.

Pande was extremely critical of Film Federation of India`s (FFI) handling of the entire issue of film selection and the controversy surrounding "Eklavya`s" selection.

"I am angry with the politics played by FFI. First they did not inform the committee that one of the members was associated with the making of promotional film for "Eklavya". Had we known this fact, we could have stopped him from voting."

"Then, despite the academy of motion picture arts and sciences giving us an opportunity for course correction, ffi remained adamant on sending "Eklavya" although we had three days in hand to send a fresh entry. The final result was "Eklavya" was not even nominated," Pande said.

"The government must take a good look at the working of FFI. It is the matter of honour of our country," he added.

News Source : Samachar