This is a team effort: Director Amit Masurkar on 'Newton' Oscar selection

Amit Masurkar's political satire '

Newton

', featuring Rajkummar Rao in the lead, has been announced as India's official entry at the 2018 Oscars and the director has lauded his team for the feat. 'Newton' opened to critical acclaim today and the filmmaker said the apart from the cast, he owes it to his crew who worked hard non-stop behind the scenes in the jungles of Chhattisgarh, where they shot the film for 37 days.


"We are very happy that it's been chosen at a time when it's in theatres. We hope this would make more people in India to go and watch the film. Anybody who loves our people, our country will connect with 'Newton'," Masurkar told.

"The film talks about human rights violation and the need to strengthen democracy and it's told in a very light-hearted, non-preachy way. This is a team effort. Producers Manish Mundra and Aanand L Rai, cinematographer Swapnil Sonawane, editor Shweta Venkat and so many more people have worked really hard behind the scenes," he added. The movie is a political satire revolving around an honest election officer's attempt to conduct a free and fair poll in a conflict-hit area of Chhattisgarh.

It is Masurkar's second directorial outing after he made his debut with the 2014 independent film, 'Sulemani Keeda'. The filmmaker said that he was initially unsure about directing 'Newton'.

"It was a big challenge for me. I was afraid to take it up. I was scared, not for my life but I was afraid I would make it into a travesty. Because that's what happens most of the time when you look at films that appear really promising in the beginning."

"So, I was worried about that. But then I had a good team and the film was cast well, along with the right producer. Thankfully things went right."
The director said 'Newton' fell right into his zone of black comedy.

"We are looking at the film from the point of view of this wide-eyed, honest, duty-bound young blood government clerk, Newton. This election in the jungle is a mission for him. It is the most exciting thing that he has done in his life. Otherwise, he's just a pen pusher who has a 9-to-5 job. He considers himself as this torchbearer of democracy."

"In such a situation, it lends to a lot of dark humour. We have not shied away from anything, it's no holds barred. We just made the film the way it would have been made without thinking about censorship or anything," he said.

Also featuring Pankaj Tripathi, Raghubir Yadav, Anjali Patil and Sanjay Mishra, 'Newton' was the unanimous choice of FFI's selection committee as Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars next year.