‘To have made it to the shortlist of 15 movies for the Academy Award is a giant deal for us.’

IMAGE: Ishaan Khattar and Vishal Jethwa in Homebound.

Producer Karan Johar and Director Neeraj Ghaywan have lots to be pleased with.

Their movie Homebound has made it to the shortlist of 15 movies eligible for an Oscar within the Greatest Worldwide Function Movie class.

Homebound is the one Indian movie to be shortlisted for the Oscar since Mehboob Khan’s Mom India, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan.

“I’m, in fact, happy for myself and for the movie’s producer Karan Johar,” Ghaywan tells Subhash Ok Jha.

“If, as you say, Homebound has a great likelihood of bringing dwelling the Oscar, then I’m most glad. After I directed Masaan in 2015, I acquired many scripts from studios, however usually stood in my very own method.”

“I used to be looking for one thing the place my id and my work may merge, one thing that really challenges me and resonates deeply with my values and my seek for which means in an more and more disoriented world.”

Homebound has been going from power to power in current months.

When legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese noticed it, he instantly got here on board as govt producer.

 

“It is very humorous however each time one thing main occurs, I’ve this behavior of calling Karan (Johar) and saying, ‘Are you able to sit down? I’ve one thing to inform you.’ He will get so nervous each time I begin my dialog with this opening.”

“Once I advised him, we made it to the Un Sure Regard part on the Cannes Movie pageant, he was uncontrollably excited. Now this! To have made it to the shortlist of 15 movies for the Academy Award is a giant deal for us.”

Will Homebound get nominated on the 98th Academy Awards?

The legendary late filmmaker Shaji Karun, who headed the jury in 2021 for the choice of India’s Oscar entry, had mentioned, ‘When you take a look at the films that we’re going to compete with on the Oscars, it is like on the extent of the Olympics. We must always know what we’re up in opposition to.

‘Wanting on the movies which win awards at festivals internationally, all of them have a standard thread of humanism. The thought of the human coronary heart triumphing over all obstacles. That high quality is frequent to all cultures.

‘We wished to pick a movie that celebrated humanism. If we chosen a political movies or a movie on a particular cultural occasion, they might simply be bypassed (on the Oscars) if they do not match with the political ideologies of the individuals viewing the movie.’

Images curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff