'Water' is Canada's official entry for Oscars

MUMBAI: Deepa Mehta's critically acclaimed film Water starring John Abraham and Lisa Ray, has been chosen as Canada's official entry for the 2007 Oscars in the foreign film category.

An announcement was made on Thursday in Montreal by Telefilm Canada, which chaired a committee comprising of 25 voting Canadian film delegates representing major industry associations and government agencies.

This year, Water was selected, by majority vote, from nine eligible films submitted by producers, the Telefilm Canada website said.

Water, which stars Bollywood heartthrob John Abraham, Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas is Mehta's third in her trilogy on women in India. The first two films were Fire and Earth.

The filmmaker, based in Toronto, had received critical acclaim for the 2005 film, including at last year's Toronto film festival.

Reacting to the news, the film's distributor in India, Ravi Chopra said, "It is a fantastic achievement that an Indian living in Canada has made a film about her home country with Indian actors and yet managed to be chosen as Canada's official entry to the Oscars."

On why the film was yet to be released in India, Chopra said, "There have been some problems and we are sorting them out. We will take a call on the release date in the next couple of days once the auspicious period of Navratri starts."