RRR Gets Snubbed , Chhello Last Show Inches Closer To The  Oscar

Despite  the rumoured 80-crore rupee  campaign in Los Angeles, not to mention its baffling entry into the  list of  the  year’s best  of  some top  international publications,  Rajamouli’s RRR  has failed to make  it to the  shortlist  for  the Oscars’ Best International Film nominations list. As consolation, M M Keeravani’s song Naatu has been nominated  in the list of 15 songs for the Oscar.This list will be further  whittled  down from 15 to 5  next month.

This is  a  huge snub for RRR. For the  last  three months, Rajamouli had been relentlessly lobbying in LA  for a  backdoor entry into the Oscars. All his hopes are dashed to the ground, although he is  hoping  that RRR will make  it into some of the mainstream  nomination  lists for the Oscars. This seems  far-fetched  if not impossible.

Pan Nalin’s Chhello  Last Show, a  coming-of-age  fable  of  a boy in a village in  Gujarat dreaming about making films, is not short of a miracle. The  producers  and  the  director had  no  budget for a proper campaign in LA. As if this was not a big enough  hurdle, a smearing campaign against  the  film was  launched to  discredit Chhello Last Show after it was  selected as  India’s  official entry  to the Oscars.

When  will ever learn to celebrate a  true triumph when  it stares us  in our face?

Reacting to  the  selection of their film among the  fifteen  nominations  for the Oscar in the Best International  Film category,  Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, producer Dheer Momaya and director Pan Nalin jointly said, “We are humbled and overjoyed that our heartfelt ode to the cinematic medium Last Film Show (Chhello Show) has been recognized by the world’s preeminent awards body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Ever since our selection by the Film Federation of India as India’s Official Entry to the 95th Oscars, we knew in our hearts that the film was bound for something special. We would like to thank the FFI, the millions of people who watched and admired Chhello Show, as well as our international distributors who gave the film a well-deserved push. This is a historic moment for India and we hope to bring the Oscar home very soon.”

Chhello Last Show will now  have to compete  with the likes of  Lukas Dhont’s Belgian masterpiece  Close and  Ali Abbasi’s Iranian  Holy Spider in the Oscars’ shortlist.