what a shame, I think JBJ would have suited them better! they would never stop jerks!

Vinod Chopra hits back at Farah Khan, Sajid Khan and Anupam Kher Click here to add this article to My Clips
By Faridoon Shahryar, September 26, 2007 - 19:12 IST
“What are the credentials of these people…what is their understanding of cinema…where does their allegiance lie,” said Vidhu Vinod Chopra when asked to react to the comments of a few filmmakers like Farah Khan, Sajid Khan and Anupam Kher who didn’t approve of Eklavya being chosen as the official entry for Oscars this year. “Last year Lage Raho didn’t go, did I, Raju or anybody from my office say why Munnabhai didn’t go, it was a better film. Before that Parineeta didn’t go, Paheli went. Did I say that Shah Rukh made a stupid film. My films didn’t go for two years, I didn’t bother anyone, why are they bothering us now,” Chopra said.

The producer-director compared the attitude of certain sections of the film fraternity akin to crab mentality, where one crab pulls down the other one. One person according to him who is not a crab is Ronnie Screwwala, as he was genuinely happy and gave all the sound advice as to how best to push the film. Chopra’s office has also been in touch with Aamir Khan for all his experiences during the promotion of Lagaan.

Before the real battle begins, the controversy on the selection of Eklavya over Bhavna Talwar’s Dharm refuses to die down. “The young filmmaker whose film hasn’t gone, I heard, she has said in Mid Day that Eklavya was a boring film. I can tell her, I saw your film, and I thought it was a load of shit. It’s immature, childish.” But what about the resistance within the film industry, even people like Anupam Kher (who’ve worked in films like Parinda and 1942 A Love Story) have said that Chak De India would have been a better choice? “My answer is, maybe Anupam has worked more with some other Chopra. To the film fraternity that is opposing, let me tell them, LA Times has called Eklavya a lost film of David Lean. I wonder if these people who shoot back side asses of women know who David Lean is. David Lean is the God of Cinema. He made ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ When I heard it, I had tears in my eyes. New York Times called it a heart of classic. These people need to be educated a little bit about cinema,” Chopra said.

Eklavya had won good reviews when it was released, but somehow it failed to match the Box Office glory of your last few films like Lage Raho Munnabhai, Parineeta and Munnabhai MBBS? “Parinda was not a huge Box Office success. You know there are filmmakers for whom Box Office success is all that matters. There are others, which I believe I am, who are making films that they believe in. If it succeeds like Lage Raho, we are very happy. But if doesn’t like Eklavya, we are still very happy because we made a film that I believed in. Let me tell you what I read in The Hindustan Times. The reporter said that the film cost Rs. 20 crore. It is wrong. Then it said it ran for 3 weeks. Again wrong. Eklavya ran for 15 weeks. Just to make their story, they have misquoted it.”

To watch the full interview, log on to IndiaFM (Broadband) tomorrow and watch Vidhu Vinod Chopra like never before.


Holly Molly!! All crap goes to Oscar and with big bang!

Why dont they send GANDHI's SON instead!

Eklavya was quite good, but certainly not great, though I'm sure it's better than any crap Farah Khan has done or probably ever will do. That woman needs to shut it and lay off the rasmalai!

Though I think 'Gandhi my father' should've gone as it was a better film. It's a shame Black Friday was made 3 years ago but relased this year, otherwise that should've gone and it may have even won. I had just seen "A Mighty Heart" and it reminded me of Black Friday. It's a shame that A Mighty Heart may be considered for the oscars, but Black Friday never will.

Eklavya was all right, but offerred absolutely nothing phenomenol (fine, Amitabh Bachchan was great in his titular role, but that doesn't earn the film an award); I'm also in agreement with the claim that it did, at parts, bore. The film promised action, and it fell short, and it boasted intelligence, and delivered more along the lines of pretention. Just because someone somehow thought it was like a David-Lean movie doesn't mean it was, and even if it were, that wouldn't necessarily imply that it's great.

Ali

No doubt! Eklavya was boring! So did Paheli too! yawn!

The Oscars are supposed to be awards given to the best movies in various categories. Now, it's an American program, so, for American films, many categories exist; for non-American films, however, there's only one slot: "Best [Foreign] Picture." Of course, "best" is a subjective notion, and what one person considers great another might feel is garbage. Eklavya, however, I'd imagine, would be no one's example of a near-flawless film (just the ending was quite weak, to be honest), which is something a "best picture" ought to be; so, I find it very odd that the committee in charge of the matter would select the effort to be shipped off to the United States to compete for the Academy award for best foreign film.

I do totally agree with Chopra about Indian awards vs. the Oscars. The FilmFare awards are a fucking joke as far as recognizing good work is concerned.

http://www.indiafm.com/broadband/video/ ... shers.html

Can anyone name any other oscar-worthy films of this past year from India? I can only think of "Gandhi, may father" that would even come close. It was liked by film critics in the UK, but I guess maybe Americans saw something in Eklayva, that the rest of us missed. Either that or India did a bad job at pushing "Gandhi, my father"?

They only, pick, push big pawa, big wigs! Bollywood does not make good films any more! just mass entertainer masalas!

Dor was acclaimed so did chatri chor!

Or simply PARTNER/HEYY BABY, CDI, JBJ, RGV KI KHAAK etc etc Unka copy karke unse competition lol.

The other movie in competition seems to have been Dharm ( http://imdb.com/title/tt1047459/ ) which seems to have stirred the wrong emotions in the film makers. Apparently director Bhavna Talwarhave sent a legal notice to the FFI, saying Eklavya was “biased and vitiated and intended to wrongfully benefit the producer of the film Eklavya." More here;

http://www.indiafm.com/news/2007/09/28/10166/index.html

Seems a three way bytch slap match going on between VVC, Bhavna Talwarhave & Sajid Khan - who’s is that Heyy Babyy made more money than 'Eklavya - The Royal Guard, Mission Kashmir, Kareeb, 1942: A Love Story, Parinda, Khamosh, Sazaye Maut, An Encounter with Faces' ;

http://www.indiafm.com/features/2007/09 ... index.html

Seems all three are using this selection controversy to gain much publicity for their movies as possible. I'd like to watch Dharm as Mr_Khiladi says us Brits like the controversial movie

Ali

Frankly, even as a diehard lover of Indian cinema, even though Eklavya had fantastic visuals, I could not get the point of Eklavya

Plus, Oscar nominees need not be limited to Bollywood... true?

I was wondering why no-one had brought this up yet - there are tonnes of regional Indian films that are better than the crap churned out in Bollywood. I don't know why India is so hell bent on embarrassing itself as a country by sending shit to the Oscars every year. Oh well, I guess Eklavya is better than Jeans.............

Exactly, there's many good films that India hardly promotes to outside audiences or even those in India. I've seen some Indian films at film festivals that I thought were very good, but these films are never promoted by the Indian film Industry. One such film was "Hari Om" which was in Hindi, English and French which went down well with the festival audiences but has never been officially released. India is producing some international films made in English to aim at a foreign audience but this is working against them. The thing is these would never even be considered for awards at the Oscars or Cannes as they are not in a foreign language (other than English). That's why Mr & Mrs Iyer could never be considered for an award, unless it was made mainly in Hindi.

I think the people in the film industry are brainless idiots who like to push crap like Devdas and Andaz (remember that?). They have no idea of what a good film is that can possibly win awards abroad. Imagine if they can think that films like Andaz could stand a chance of winning then India is always going to be the laughing stock of the film-making world. I wonder if these film-makers are passing bribes in order to get their film sent to the oscars?

I hope Dharm is released in the UK, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be straight to DVD like Matrubhoomi.

Dharam would be better choice and Pankhaj Kapoor a better actor too! VVC has lost its touch and forte with all these bad films lately