Newton Director Amit Masurkar’s political satire has been nominated as India’s official entry for the Oscars 2018, the Film Federation of India announced. FFI’s selection committee, headed by Telugu producer C V Reddy, unanimously chose Newton from 26 other entries this year. (Image: IE)
Newton Director Amit Masurkar’s political satire has been nominated as India’s official entry for the Oscars 2018, the Film Federation of India announced. FFI’s selection committee, headed by Telugu producer C V Reddy, unanimously chose Newton from 26 other entries this year. “‘Newton’ has been selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars. It was unanimously chosen from 26 entries this year,” FFI secretary general Supran Sen told. Actor Rajkummar Rao said, “It is one of the most important films of my career. It was made with a lot of honesty. I think I am doing something different every time and I want to grow with every film. I hope with ‘Newton’, I get more international recognition.” The actor essays the role of an earnest government clerk who wants to conduct a free and fair election in a conflict-hit area of Chhattisgarh.
Some reasons that make Newton special:
1. The director chooses political subject that’s quite complicated and involves the Maoist areas. Masurkar said, “I wanted to tell a story in the political space. The reason for choosing Chhattisgarh is that the issue here is different from the two that you have mentioned. Naxals are not asking for a separate country or fighting for development or seeking an answer to any injustice,” as per IANS.
2. The film is not centric to the lead actor as all the characters in the film have been written substantially to build the story. Initially, the script was rejected by many. The director said:”“I showed the script to a couple of studios who said that ‘Oh, it’s politics… Youth have no interest in it’. The moment I narrated the story to Manish (Manish Mundra of Drishyam Films), he said ‘Yes’ in no time,” as per Hindustan Times.
3. In 2010 former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Naxalism remains the biggest internal security challenge and it is imperative to control Left-wing extremism for the country’s growth. The film shows the real issues of that area. The Director said: “I hope this brings more attention to what is happening in Chhattisgarh right now,” as per Scroll.in.
4. The film has already earned global recognition. It won the CICAE award at Berlin film festival earlier this year and the jury prize at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. It also scored nominations at the Buenos Aires, Edinburgh, Istanbul, Jerusalem and the TriBeCa film festivals, according to Variety.
