India’s Oscar hope is not yet over

India’s Oscar hope is not yet over. Even though the country’s official submission to the Oscars — Rajkummar Rao starrer Newton — failed to make the final cut, a Bengali film, Red Oliender’s Roktokorobi, has found mention in the massive list released by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The list comprises films eligible for Best Picture award at the Oscars next year.
There are 341 films in the race for the Best Picture and among them are Dunkirk, Mudbound, Darkest Hour, Call Me By Your Name, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Stories, among others.To be selected in the category, a film has to meet a few yardsticks. As per the Academy’s qualifications, a feature film must release in a theatre in Los Angeles County by December 31 and run for at least seven consecutive days. The films are required to have a running time of more than 40 minutes and exhibited theatrically on 35 mm or 70 mm. Films are struck out if they receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release. Even though the other categories in Oscars have five nominees, the number of best picture category nominations can be anything between five and 10; after this, the voting process begins.

Incidentally, Red Oliender’s Roktokorobi also had an LA release in end-October and has made its way into the list. The film was independently submitted to the Academy and will now be eligible for the big award. The final nominations for the 90^thAcademy Awards will be announced on January 23 and the gala event will be hosted at Dolby Theater on March 4. The director of Red Oliender’s Roktokorobi told us, “My film is an independent entry and the whole team is excited about this acknowledgment from the Academy.”
Rwitobroto, son of Shantilal Mukherjee, too announced the news of social media. “I am excited about a Bengali film going this far,” he told us. The film stars Shantilal Mukherjee, Rajesh Sharma, Rahul, Kaushik Sen, Debdut Ghosh, Dipankar Dey, Sagnik, Anindya Banerjee, Mumtaz Sorcar and Ushasie Chakraborty and happens to be a contemporary adaptation of Tagore’s play, Raktakarabi.