Oscars 2021: 'Jallikattu' exits international feature race, short film 'Bittu' moves to next round
New Delhi: "Jallikattu", India's official entry in the Best International Feature category at the 93rd Academy Awards, is out of the Oscars race but the country is still in the fray with short film "Bittu" advancing to the next round in Best Live Action Short Film segment.
"Jallikattu", a Malayalam-language movie directed by filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery, is not part of the shortlist of 15 features that will be vying for a spot in the final five, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced on Wednesday.
Thomas Vinterberg's "Another Round", starring Mads Mikkelson, has made it to shortlist that also include Andrei Konchalovsky's "Dear Comrades!" (Russia), Agnieszka Holland's "Charlatan" (Czech Republic) and two documentaries -- "The Mole Agent" from Chile and "Collective" from Romania.
The other contenders are "Quo Vadis, Aida?" (Bosnia and Herzegovina), "Two of Us" (France), "La Llorona" (Guatemala), "Better Days" (Hong Kong), "Sun Children" (Iran), "Night of the Kings" (Ivory Coast), "I'm No Longer Here" (Mexico), "Hope" (Norway), "A Sun" (Taiwan) and "The Man Who Sold His Skin" (Tunisia).
Films from 93 countries were eligible in the category.
In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt-in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films in order to cast a ballot.
"Jallikattu" is based on the short story Maoist by Hareesh and stars Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran.
The film had its premiere on September 6, 2019 at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and received widespread critical acclaim.
Karishma Dev Dube-directed "Bittu" has made it to the Best Live Action Short Film shortlist for the Oscars.
The movie is part of 10 film shortlist that also include "Da Yie", "Feeling Through", "The Human Voice", "The Kicksled Choir", "The Letter Room", "The Present", "Two Distant Strangers", "The Van" and "White Eye".
Based on a true story, the movie is a short film about a close friendship between two girls, eclipsed by an accident at their school.
"Bittu" is presented by Indian Women Rising (IWR), a cinema collective that was recently formed by filmmakers Ekta Kapoor, Guneet Monga, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, and Ruchikaa Kapoor.
Monga, whose 2018 production "Period. End of Sentence" had won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2019, celebrated the moment on social media.
"It's 4.30 am in India... am tossing & turning, stress eating and texting my IWR girls thru the night and here we are !! 'Bittu' is now shortlisted for the 93rd Academy Awards," the producer said in a post on Instagram.
"So so grateful for 'Bittu' and our incredible team... Say a little prayer and wish us luck for the next round of nominations," she added.
The final nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on March 15. With "Jallikattu" exiting the foreign film race, India has once again drawn a blank in the category.
The last Indian film that made it to the final five in the Best International Feature category was Ashutosh Gowariker's "Lagaan" in 2001
"Mother India" (1958) and "Salaam Bombay" (1989) are the other two Indian movies to have made it to the top five.
In 2019, Zoya Akhtar's "Gully Boy", starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, was India's entry to the Oscars.
The 93rd Academy Awards, which were postponed from their usual February date due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held on April 25.
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Baramati plane crash: Rohit Pawar alleges attempts to shield VSR Ventures
Mumbai (PTI): NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Wednesday alleged that someone was trying to save VSR Ventures in connection with the plane crash that killed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and claimed that the AAIB preliminary probe vindicated the doubts earlier raised by him.
He also accused VSR company of indulging in several grave lapses in the past.
The Learjet 45 aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures, crashed near the Baramati air strip in Pune district on January 28, killing Pawar and four others.
In its 22-page preliminary report on the VSR Venture's Learjet plane crash, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the visibility at the time of the crash was below the required level. It also flagged about fading marks on the runway and presence of loose gravels on the runway surface.
Pawar said, "I am not against VSR or the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Ajitdada was travelling in a VSR aircraft. Unless we go into the depth of every aspect, we will not know the truth. But someone is trying to save this company. The doubts we had raised have been proven correct in the inquiry report."
He also claimed that the AAIB report contained discrepancies, including mentioning Baramati as a district, and questioned how seriously the probe had been conducted.
Pawar, who has been regularly holding press conferences to raise issues concerning the Baramati plane crash, also contested the report's conclusion that the aircraft hit trees before crashing.
"The report says the aircraft struck trees and then fell. But there are no trees at that spot. There is only a small bush which the aircraft did not even touch. What is stated in the report about hitting trees is incorrect," he said.
Pawar further alleged that VSR Ventures had displayed irresponsibility on multiple occasions, citing an incident involving the then chief minister Eknath Shinde's Davos visit on January 20, 2023.
He claimed that the aircraft carrying Shinde had entered Iranian and Iraqi airspace without overflight permission, following which fighter jets from the two countries allegedly warned of action, forcing a change in route from Bahrain to Zurich.
"There have been several such grave lapses by VSR," he said.
Pawar demanded to know from where VSR Ventures derived its "audacity", and sought details about its investors and officials, though he added that he was not personally concerned with who they were.
Drawing a comparison, he said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had taken over the probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death within two days, whereas a month had passed since the Baramati crash without a similar action.
He claimed that VSR Ventures had two directors and three shareholders, and that there were eight common names across two related companies.
He further alleged that the owner of VSR was related to the Union Civil Aviation Minister and questioned why the company, though registered in Delhi, had made high-value investments in Jubilee Hills (upscale area in Hyderabad) at rates allegedly Rs 17 crore above the market price.
The MLA representing the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly constituency in Ahilyanagar district also raised concerns about the legal and institutional framework of the AAIB under the 2017 rules, claiming it was neither a statutory nor an autonomous body and remained answerable to the secretary and the minister, besides being attached to the DGCA.
"There is no independent investigative agency," he alleged.
