'Homebound' makes it to Oscar shortlist for best international feature
Mumbai (PTI): Neeraj Ghaywan's much acclaimed "Homebound" is among the 15 films shortlisted in the best international feature category at the Oscars, moving a step close to the final five nominations and maybe a win.
The movie, inspired by a true story that became the basis of a news article during the pandemic, has been creating a global buzz since its debut in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival this May.
Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese is a fan and has come onboard as an executive producer ahead of the award season.
Produced by Karan Johar and Adar Poonawalla, and starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor, "Homebound" is Ghaywan's second movie after "Masaan".
"Homebound" will compete for an Oscar nomination alongside Argentina's “Belén”, Brazil's “The Secret Agent”, French drama "It Was Just an Accident”, Germany's "Sound of Falling” and Iraq's "The President's Cake".
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The other movies in the shortlist include Japan's “Kokuho”, Jordan's “All That’s Left of You”, Norway's “Sentimental Value”, Palestine's “Palestine 36”, South Korean hit “No Other Choice”, Spain's “Sirat”, "Late Shift" from Switzerland, “Left-Handed Girl”from Taiwan and Tunisian drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in a release on Tuesday.
The award for best foreign film, now re-categorised as best international feature, has so far eluded India.
Only three Indian films have received nominations in the category -- Mehmood Khan’s “Mother India”, Mira Nair’s “Salaam Bombay” and Ashutosh Gowarikar’s “Lagaan”. Deepa Mehta’s “Water”, starring John Abraham and Lisa Ray, also received a nomination but it was submitted from Canada.
Gujarati film "Chhello Show" in 2023 was the last film to get shortlisted.
Costume designer Bhanu Athaiya was the first Indian to get an Oscar, bagging the coveted prize in 1983 for the film "Gandhi". Other than her, A R Rahman, Resul Pukootty and M M Keeravani have also won individual Oscars.
Team "Homebound" celebrated the shortlist news with posts on social media.
"We made the shortlist... Way to go team Homebound'!" Johar shared in Instagram Stories.
In a post, the producer said it was difficult for him to articulate how "proud and elated" he was with the news.
"All of us @dharmamovies are privileged to have this proud and important film in our filmography... thank you @neeraj.ghaywan for making so many dreams of ours come true... from Cannes to being on the Oscar shortlist this has been such an overwhelming journey! Love to the entire cast and crew and teams of this special special film! Upwards and onwards...."
Ghaywan also shared the news on X.
"#Homebound has been shortlisted for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards! We are deeply grateful for the extraordinary love and support we've received from around the world," he wrote on X with a special poster of the film.
Jethwa, who plays one of the two friends in the story opposite Ishaan Khatter, said the moment feels "surreal and incredibly humbling".
"To see 'Homebound' being shortlisted and progressing towards the Oscars is something I could have only dreamed of. I am deeply grateful for the love and support the film has received from audiences around the world," he said as he acknowledged Johar, Ghaywan and co-star Khatter and the rest of the team.
Khatter also shared the news on his Instagram stories and wrote, "Oscar ab dur nahi".
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"Homebound" is inspired by journalist Basharat Peer's The New York Times article “Taking Amrit Home”, also titled "A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway".
The film portrays the childhood friendship between a Muslim and Dalit who chase a police job that promises them the dignity they have long been denied due to their surnames.
The Academy on Tuesday also announced shortlists in 11 other categories, including the newly added casting Oscars, animated shorts, cinematography, documentary feature, documentary short, original score and song, sound and visual effects categories.
Nominations for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2026.
Twenty-four categories will be awarded at the 98th Oscars. Each category has five nominees, except for best picture, which has 10.
The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
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EC only removed infiltrators from Bengal voters’ list, task is to throw them out of country: Shah
Kolkata (PTI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that while the Election Commission has only removed infiltrators from the electoral rolls of West Bengal, the larger task would be to drive them out of the country’s borders.
Sharpening his anti-infiltration pitch during campaigns for the upcoming assembly elections in Bengal, Shah said once the BJP forms a government in the state, it will “seal the country’s eastern borders in such a manner that even birds won’t be able to flap their wings” around the fences.
"Didi (Mamata Banerjee) doesn’t want to give 600 acres of land to the BSF required to build the border fences. We have decided that once we have a BJP chief minister here, we will complete the task of fencing within 45 days on the required land," Shah told a gathering at Tufangunj in the Bangladesh-bordering Cooch Behar district of north Bengal.
“And it’s not just about stopping outsiders from coming in. It’s also about those who have already infiltrated. While the Election Commission (EC) has only removed infiltrators from the electoral rolls of West Bengal, the larger task would be to drive them out of the country’s borders,” he added.
Nearly 91 lakh names have been deleted by the EC from the state’s voters’ lists during the recently concluded SIR exercise, triggering a major political dust-up in the run-up to the polls, with the TMC accusing the commission of acting at the behest of the BJP.
The Union home minister has been staying put in Bengal over the past few days and has held multiple rallies across the state in the run-up to the April 23 polls, when voters in north Bengal districts would exercise their franchise, sharpening the infiltration issue as one of the most prominent poll planks of the BJP.
Accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of having a "step-motherly attitude" towards north Bengal, Shah said that her priorities lay elsewhere.
“Of the Rs 4 lakh crore total state budget, she gave Rs 5,700 crore to Muslims, but allotted only Rs 1,200 crore for the entire north Bengal region,” he said.
Shah announced the inclusion of the Rajbanshi language in the Constitution’s 8th schedule and the setting up of a Narayani battalion, in honour of the community’s erstwhile Narayani Sena militia, in the state reserve police force once the BJP forms a government in Bengal.
Earlier, while addressing a rally in Rajgunj in Jalpaiguri district, the Union home minister pledged that the BJP will recover every penny the TMC has "stolen from the people of Bengal through corruption", and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no taint of graft charge even after two decades in the ruler's seat.
He said that while Banerjee's exit from power was a "certainty", the task of initiating the process would begin from the state's northern regions.
"Modi ruled Gujarat for 12 years and is at the helm in the Centre for another 12; yet no corruption charge, involving even a penny, could be levelled against him. Vote the BJP to power in Bengal, and we will recover each and every cent that TMC leaders have stolen from people, along with interest, and return it to the poor people of the state," Shah said at the poll rally.
He said that once the BJP is in power, it will act against TMC leaders who "gobbled up Rs 300 crore by orchestrating the teachers' recruitment scam" and the Rs 100 crore that was "stolen" from the flood relief funds sanctioned by the Centre for north Bengal.
"North Bengal is known for three Ts -- Tea, Timber and Tourism. But Mamata Banerjee has added a fourth T -- tears of BJP workers who have suffered immeasurably in the hands of TMC goons," Shah said.
"Search and press the button next to lotus (BJP's poll symbol) on EVMs and the BJP will fulfil its task of searching for TMC goons and bringing them to justice," he added.
Speaking at a subsequent public meeting at Falakata in Alipurduars district, Shah referred to the attack on Deepak Barman, the sitting MLA and BJP’s candidate from the Falakata Assembly constituency, allegedly by a group of TMC workers on Tuesday, a day ahead of the Union home minister’s visit.
“I want to tell Mamata Banerjee that your goons cannot intimidate him (Barman), he is a BJP worker. I would want to assure him that after May 5 (a day after counting of votes), no one can lay fingers on you. I will warn TMC goons to stay at home on April 23, the day of polls, else after May 5 we will hang you upside down to make you straight,” Shah said.
Advocating for an infiltrator-free north Bengal, the Union home minister said the Modi government, “which ended Naxalism in India and gave befitting replies to perpetrators of terrorism on the country’s soil”, will now detect infiltrators in Bengal and elsewhere to throw them out.
“On this very day, a BJP chief minister has taken oath in Bihar. We already have our government in Odisha. Elect the BJP in Bengal and the lotus (BJP’s party symbol) will bloom across the haloed trinity of Aang-Bang-Kaling. We will stop infiltrators from sneaking inside the country once and for all, as we have done in Assam and Tripura,” he said.
While announcing a host of north Bengal-centric development schemes which the BJP has also promised in its poll manifesto, Shah said the party will issue land titles to tea garden workers, making them plot owners, after forming a government in the state.
“We will increase tea worker wages by Rs 500 within two years, reimburse their deducted Provident Fund money, set up modern model schools in tea estates and ensure that the one-time grant of Rs 3,000 for all tea employees sanctioned by the Modi government at Centre reaches their bank accounts,” he said.
Launching a scathing attack against TMC supremo, Shah said that while Modi considered all people his brothers, sisters and nephews, Banerjee cared only for one nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
“All she wants is to make her nephew the future CM of Bengal. But I want to tell her that her time has come to an end. She will be on exit route once the elections in West Bengal ends,” he said.
