BREAKING NEWS FIRST ON BUSINESSOFCINEMA.COM
MUMBAI: Aamir Khan’s tryst with the Oscars continues. Khan’s directorial debut Taare Zammen Par has been selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars. The movie will compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Taare Zameen Par released in India on 21 December, 2007 and bagged rave reviews from audience and critics alike. The film has been produced by Khan in association with PVR Pictures.
It stars Aamir Khan, Darsheel Safary, Tisca Chopra, Vipin Sharma and Sachet Engineer. Khan is currently shooting in Ladak for Raju Hirani’s 3 Idiots and is expected back in Mumbai tomorrow.
In an official statement Aamir Khan says, "Am really happy that TZP been selected to represent India at an international forum like the Oscars. It is a film that is extremely close to my heart. It’s a film that first sensitized me as a parent and as person and then went on to have same effect on all the audience in India and across the globe. I hope that it has an equally strong impact on the members of the Academy as well."
The movie has won various accolades at awards functions in India this year in categories of best film, best director, best story and more.
Film Federation of India (FFI) chairperson Suneel Darshan led this year’s committee for the Oscars nomination. Other jury members include Bijon Das Gupta, Aruna Raje, Ravi Kotharakara, H M Ramachandran, Sudarshan Rao, Mahesh Kothare, Jagdish Sharma, B R Ishara and Manoj Chaturvedi.
A total of nine Indian movies were contesting this year for the Oscar nomination, of which Bollywood had the highest share with movies like Taare Zameen Par, Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Jodhaa Akbar, Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday, Nishikant Kamat’s Mumbai Meri Jaan, Abhishek Kapoor’s Rock On and Subhash Ghai’s Black & White. The two Marathi movies that were in the running were Tingya and Valu along with one Telegu movie Gamayam.
Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Darshan says, "It was a difficult task to choose from the nine movies. The two Marathi movies were particularly good in their screenplay and treatment. But the committee unanimously chose Taare Zameen Par for its universal appeal."
Aamir Khan’s first home production Lagaan (2001) directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar was also the official entry to the Oscars for that year. Apart from that Aamir Khan starrer Rang De Basanti (2006), which was produced by UTV Motion Pictures was also sent as the official Indian entry to the Oscars.
The 81st Annual Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on 22 February, 2009.
