Director Geethu Mohandas opens up about 'Liar's Dice' - India's official Oscar entry

Director Geethu Mohandas, whose debut feature film Liar's Dice is India's official entry to the 87th Oscar Awards, says raising money for the independent production was "quite a journey".

Mohandas, who acted in many Malayalam movies before turning to direction, is happy that her film has been selected by the Film Federation of India out of 29 other "equally distinguished" movies.

"The only criteria while making a film is to tell a good story in a certain budget. Once that is achieved, everything is an icing on the cake. This is an exciting news for us," Mohandas told PTI over phone from Kochi.

The director says she knocked many doors before Jar Pictures came on board as co-producers for the Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer film, slated for a release later this year.

"It's been quite a journey of couple of years in finding a producer. It is hard for independent filmmakers to raise money if you don't have a big star attached to your project. I did go to a lot of production houses with the script. They said they liked the script but did not have a marketing strategy.

They just did not know how to pitch the film to the audience," Mohandas said. Thapa won the National award for the best actress for her turn as a tribal woman in the movie while cinematography award went to Mohandas' husband Rajeev Ravi.

Mohandas praised Siddiqui and Thapa for their sensitivity in portraying the characters. "Geetanjali is a phenomenal actress while Nawaz is an intelligent artiste. They could take it to the next level.

There were no dialogues in the screenplay, it was revised along the way. Full credit to them for the performance," she said. The director says she wanted to tell the story in a linear manner to highlight the plight of migrant labourers through the journey of a tribal woman, who travels to Delhi in search of her missing husband.

"It is very hard to engage the audience with a linear narrative. It may confuse some viewers as they want the director to tell the story according to their pace. Liar's Dice demands from them to sit back and watch the story the way its filmmaker wants to narrate." When asked how she planned to take the Oscar campaign forward, the director said she is leaving that decision to her producers Jar Pictures.

"I don't know what happens after that. It is new for us and we will learn along the way. I leave the campaign to my producers and the people of India. I have managed to tell a sincere story so I feel my job is done as a filmmaker."