There was a special evening reception for the talent behind India’s official entry to the Oscars at IFF as one of its stars tells why it was selected…
Panjim, Goa
DEVASTATING floods that hit the southern Indian state of Kerala in 2018 form the core subject of the film, ‘2018’ which is India’s official entry to the Oscars this year.
Launched at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Tuesday (November 22) at a beach resort in Goa, director Shekhar Kapur, the chairman of this year’s IFFI jury and minister Neerja Sekhar, were among the guests at the dinner reception.
We caught up with lead actor Narain who told us why he thought the movie had won India’s Oscar vote – and he recounts what happened to him at that time personally too – he also sends a message in Malayalam to the world at the end.
The film’s director Jude Anthony Joseph and several of the other lead actors were not able to attend due to illness.
‘2018: Everyone’s a Hero’ was selected by the Film Federation of India, made up of the country’s film producers and distributors to be India’s choice. It came out in May and is one of the highest grossing Malayalam films ever made – making around £20m on a budget of around £3m.
Ravi Kottarakara, President of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce hosted the ceremony which also saw two of the film’s producers and other production champions acknowledge the achievement.
He urged Indian members of the Academy which votes on the Oscars to support the film.
Production credits
Presenter-producer: Sailesh Ram
Camera & editing: Tushil Pujari