India's Oscar hopeful challenged

By Zubair Ahmed
BBC News, Mumbai

Eklavya has flopped at the box office

India's nomination for best foreign film at the Oscars should not have been considered, says Vinod Pande, chairman of India's jury of selectors.

Eklavya: The Royal Guard is facing a legal challenge from a rival director who says the jury was biased.

The Oscar authorities have asked India to reconfirm its choice by Wednesday. The Bombay High Court is expected to consider the case on Tuesday.

Mr Pande said it was possible that India would end up with no nomination.

Irregularities

The thriller, Eklavya: The Royal Guard, directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, was selected from among five films, including Dharm (Religion) directed by Bhavna Talwar.

Ms Talwar, a first time director, has gone to the Bombay High Court complaining that the jury making India's choice had close links with Chopra, in contravention of the jury's guidelines.

This is the third time a Chopra film has been chosen

Now jury chairman Vinod Pande has acknowledged to the BBC that there were irregularities in the selection process.

According to the Oscar academy's guidelines, and the guidelines of the Film Federation of India which selects the jury, "any member of the jury who may have had some association with any film that has been entered should withdraw from the jury," Mr Pande said.

Mr Pande said that one of the jury had now admitted a connection to Eklavya.

"Obviously it becomes an illegitimate inclusion", Mr Pande said.

Eklavya, featuring Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, has flopped at the box office and received bad reviews.

Bhavna Talwar's Dharm been critically acclaimed. The story is of a Hindu priest who adopts a child but later discovers that the child's parents were Muslims.

If the Bombay High Court does not complete its deliberations before the deadline set by the Oscars academy passes, then Mr Pande admitted India may end up with no nomination for best foreign film this year.

India's film industry churns out more than 800 films a year but none of its movies has ever won an Oscar for the best foreign film.