KOLKATA: In its long history the Film Federation of India for the first time held the selection of the country’s Oscar entry in Kolkata with Gully boy winning the entry from among 27 movies in contention.
FFI president Firdausul Hasan said: “The event is being held for the first time in Kolkata since the process began in 1957. We decided to hold the screenings in a single plex cinema hall because we want to bring back the glory days of old theatres. So we screened the films in Bijoli Cinema one of the old single screen theatres of the city.”
“The process was very democratic. We took a long time we discussed the films threadbare and each person was asked to write down three films in order of preference. After that we took a vote; we discussed the films and then we arrived at one film finally and that is Gully Boy. The energy of the film was infectious. It will speak to the audience,” said Ms Aparna Sen, Chairperson, Jury Committee.
A total of 28 films are in contention. A Gujarati movie was disqualified, so it came down to 27 films. The Hindi films vying to be selected were Badhaai Ho, Andhadhun, Article 15, Uri: The Surgical Strike, Badla, Kesari, The Tashkent Files and Gully Boy.
The screening process started on September 16 and ended today afternoon. (AGENCIES)
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