"Chhello Show was the unanimous choice of the entire jury," says Film Federation chief T P. Aggarwal

The Gujarati film Last Film Show (Chhello Show) is India’s official entry to the Best International Feature Film category of the 95th Academy Awards. This brings down the curtain on the recent media hype about SS Rajamouli’s RRR and Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files being the top contenders for the honour.

T P. Aggarwal, President of the Film Federation of India, which selects India’s Oscar entry each year, says there was no debate on which film had to go to the Oscars.

“It was Pan Nalin’s film Last Film Show all the way. This is the first time that the entire jury for  selection was unanimous in its  choice,” Aggarwal informed me in a chat just before his flight took off.

Speaking on the hype surrounding the possible selection of RRR and The Kashmir Files, Aggarwal says, “The names that you are mentioning were nowhere close to being selected (as India’s official entry to the Oscars). I haven’t seen any of the films that were up for consideration. But my jury tells me that none of these films are anywhere as meritorious as  Pan Nalin’s film. I think we stand a good chance of winning the Oscar this time.”

The other names that were up for consideration are the Tamil film Iravin Nizhal, Rocketry (Hindi,Tamil), Ariyippu (Malayalam), The Kashmir Files (Hindi), Badhaai Do (Hindi), RRR (Telugu), Jhund (Hindi), Brahmastra (Hindi), Sthalam (Telugu), Aparajito (Bengali), Anek (Hindi), Semkhor (Dimasa).

Looking at the list of Oscar hopefuls, I wonder how some of these films even dared to consider themselves Oscar-worthy.

Aggarwal laughs when I mention this, “I cannot comment on the quality of the films. But I do  know that the selected film was heads and shoulders above the rest. There is speculation that the film made the cut because it is from Gujarat (the Prime Minister’s home state), and that we were under pressure to select this film. Nothing can be further from the truth. And I would request these cynical voices to simmer down. Please do not taint and politicize a truly artistic achievement.”

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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