The Film Federation of India (FFI) is faced with a legal battle for selecting ‘Eklavya — The Royal Guard’ as India’s official entry to the 80th Oscar Awards.
The Film Federation of India (FFI) is faced with a legal battle for selecting ‘Eklavya — The Royal Guard’ as India’s official entry to the 80th Oscar Awards. WSG Pictures and Bhavna Talwar, director of ‘Dharm’, which lost out to Eklavya in the Oscar race, have filed a petition in Bombay High Court, challenging FFI’s decision.
The petition, which has labeled FFI’s decision to be “vitiated by bias”, has sought a recall of Eklavya, which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt, as India’s official entry for the Academy Awards, scheduled to be held early next year.
The petitioners have also urged that FFI be directed to ensure a fair selection process for selecting the film, which will represent India at the Oscars. HC will hear the petition on Saturday.
The FFI, which has its office in Tardeo, has been selecting India’s official entry to the Oscars for the past several years. Its selection of Eklavya has evoked a mixed reaction from the film industry. The petitioner’ socially-relevant film Dharm, starring Pankaj Kapoor and Supriya Pathak, was also submitted to the FFI.
However, on September 24, they were “shocked” to know that their internationally-acclaimed film had lost out to Eklavya, which was produced and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The petitioners have alleged that some members of the FFI’s selection committee were “very close” to Chopra, and the entire selection process was biased and vitiated.
The petition stated that the FFI’s job of selecting a film as India’s official entry was of utmost public importance. Therefore, it should exercise highest degree of care and diligence to ensure that there had been no discrimination, bias or prejudice. Foremost, it has to ensure that interests of the country were not compromised.
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