Should RRR have been India's entry at the Oscars?
Fans of the film and its director S S Rajamouli seem to think so.
But T P Aggarwal, president, Film Federation of India, which selects India's Oscar entry each year, thinks the controversy is uncalled for.
"Have those questioning the jury's decision seen the film we've chosen? Then how do they know that another film was more deserving?" Aggarwal asks Subhash K Jha.
"With due respect to all the other films in the race, including RRR, there was no debate on which film should go to the Oscars this year. Pan Nalin's Last Film Show was the unanimous choice."
"Rather than celebrate an outstanding film, why is this unnecessary controversy being created?"
Interestingly the other names that were up for consideration for the Oscar were the Tamil film Iravin Nizhal, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (Hindi, Tamil), Ariyippu (Malayalam), The Kashmir Files (Hindi), Badhai Do(Hindi), RRR (Telugu), Jhund(Hindi), Brahmastra Part One: Shiva (Hindi), Aparajito(Bengali), Anek(Hindi) and Semkhor (Dimasa).
While some of these films released in 2021, others released this year.
Brahmastra was released just a fortnight ago. The timeline for the entries is befuddling.
