National Award-winning Assamese film Village Rockstars is this year's official Oscar entry from India. The announcement was made by SV Rajendra Singh Babu, the Kannada filmmaker appointed by the Film Federation of India to head this year's Oscar entry selection committee, reports PTI. Village Rockstars, directed by Rima Das, tells the story of Dhuu, an impoverished 10-year-old from a tiny Assamese village who dreams of playing the guitar and forming a band of her own. The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, is in the Kamrupi dialect.
Village Rockstars won the National Award for Best Feature Film this year. It also won Best Child Artist for Bhanita Das as Dhunu and awards for editing and sound. It has also won several other awards at film festivals around the world.
Village Rockstars was picked from a list of 28 films submitted for Oscar consideration, PTI reports. These included Sanjay Leela Bhansali's controversial "Padmaavat," Alia Bhatt's Raazi, Rani Mukerji's Hichki, the Varun Dhawan film October and recent releases Manto and Love Sonia.
India's Oscar entries in the recent past have included Newton (last year), Court, Liar's Dice, Visaranai and The Good Road. However, no Indian film has managed to make the final cut of five in the Oscars' Best Foreign Film category since Lagaan, starring Aamir Khan, in 2001.
Lagaan was the third Indian to have been nominated for an Oscar, after Mother India in 1958 - the first ever Oscar entry from India - and Salaam Bombay! in 1989. None of these films won.
(With inputs from PTI)
