India enters Lagaan for Oscars
The Film Federation of India FFI has chosen an unusual film about a game of cricket as India's entry in the foreign film category for next year's Oscar awards in Hollywood. The film - Lagaan - is set in the nineteenth century and tells the story of a group of peasants who challenge their British colonial oppressors to a game of cricket in order to
escape a punitive tax. Lagaan, which includes British actors alongside the Indian star, Aamir Khan, won an award at this year's Locarno film festival in Switzerland. India has been nominating films for the Oscars for two decades but has never won Hollywood's highest honour.BBC World Servicedated November 3, 2001.
Star ProducerLagaan may have haunting melodies but unlike most Bollywood films, it's not just a song and dance extravaganza. A period drama, the film's rural setting is a departure from the prevailing trend where nine out of 10 movies are urban campus romances.
Bollywood has powerful studios and producers but it's the handful of top stars who call the shots because they draw in the big audiences.
BBC World ServiceBy Sanjeev Srivastava, dated Tuesday June 26, 2001
Mr Khan said he was content with Lagaan's Oscar nomination. "Indian films will now get world-wide exposure", he said. The film's lyricist, Javed Akhtar, shared his disappointment. He said there were five films in the category, "but only one had to win and four had to lose." "Lagaan will now push producers to make good films", Mr Akhtar said
Some Bollywood fans said it was time the industry took a fresh look at Indian film making. "Routine Hindi films with song and dance sequences around the trees should stop now", said Arvind Sharma, a businessman. ''Quality movies must be made so that more Indian films like Lagaan can make it to the top of films in the world'', he said.
BBC World Servicedated Monday March 25, 2002
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