IMAGE: A scene from Chhello Show.

M M Keeravani’s song in S S Rajamouli’s RRR — Naatu Naatu — has made it to the shortlist for the Oscars’ Best Original Song list.

A list of 15 songs — including Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength) from Avatar: The Way of Water, Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ciao Papa from Guillermo del Toro‘s Pinocchio, Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick and Carolina from Where the Crawdads Sing — have been selected, out of which five will finally get nominated.

Unfortunately, despite the rumoured Rs 80 crore (Rs 80 million) campaign in Los Angeles, RRR has failed the shortlist for the Best International Film nominations list.

This is a huge snub for the epic historical.

For the last three months, Rajamouli had been relentlessly lobbying in LA for a backdoor entry into the Oscars. All his hopes are dashed to the ground.

 

IMAGE: NTR Jr and Ram Charan in the Naatu Naatu song in RRR.

Meanwhile, Pan Nalin’s Chhello Show, a coming-of-age story of a boy in a village in Gujarat dreaming about making films, has made it to the Oscar shortlist.

This, despite the fact that the producers and director had no budget for a proper campaign in LA.

Reacting to the big news, Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, Producer Dheer Momaya and Director Pan Nalin jointly said in a statement: ‘We are humbled and overjoyed that our heartfelt ode to the cinematic medium Last Film Show (Chhello Show) has been recognised by the world’s pre-eminent awards body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

‘This is a historic moment for India and we hope to bring the Oscar home very soon.’

Chhello Show will compete with Germany’s All Quiet In The Western Front, Argentina’s Argentina, 1985, Mexico’s Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, Sweden’s Cairo Conspiracy, Morocco’s The Blue Caftan, Belgium’s Close, Austria’s Corsage, South Korea’s Decision To Leave, Poland’s EO, Denmark’s Holy Spider, Pakistan’s Joyland, Ireland’s The Quiet Girl, Cambodia’s Return To Seoul and France’s Saint Omer.

IMAGE: A scene from All That Breathes.

Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes, an internationally co-produced Hindi title, is vying for a spot in the Best Documentary Feature category.

The Delhi-based movie follows two siblings, Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who have devoted their lives to rescue and treat injured birds, especially the Black Kites.

All That Breathes previously won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, a film gala that promotes independent cinema and film-makers, and earned the Golden Eye award for the Best Documentary at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Other 14 shortlisted nominees in the category are: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Bad Axe, Children Of The Mist, Descendant, Fire of Love, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, Hidden Letters, A House Made of Splinters, The Janes, Last Flight Home, Moonage Daydream, Navalny, Retrograde and The Territory.

Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers is a documentary that depicts an unbreakable bond between two abandoned elephants and their caretakers. It is produced by Guneet Monga.

To make it to the final five, the Tamil title will have to fight it out with The Flagmakers, Nuisance Bear, Shut Up And Paint, Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison, Anastasia, and nine other documentary shorts in the section.

The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on January 24, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Additional reportage: PTI.



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