Director Amit Masurkar's political satire Newton, starring Rajkummar Rao in the lead role, will be India's official entry at Oscars 2018, the Film Federation of India announced today.
The Hindi film was the unanimous choice of FFI's selection committee, headed by Telugu producer C V Reddy.
"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 PTI.
The decision to choose the film, which was released commercially today, for the Oscars was the proverbial "cherry on the cake", said actor Rajkummar Rao.
"It is a really honest film and we are already getting an overwhelming response. We will put all our energies to take the film forward," the actor told PTI.
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Director Masurkar added that it was a double celebration for the team.
"We are really happy. The fact that the film is releasing today doubles the happiness. We hope that people will now really head to the cinema halls to watch the film," the director told PTI.
Manish Mundra, founder of Drishyam Films and producer of Newton says: "This is the most incredible news of our lives -- all of our hard work and faith is finally paying off. Newton is a very important film and we cannot thank the Film Federation of India jury enough for recognising and appreciating our efforts. There is truly no greater honour than representing our country at the global stage."
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He adds,: "And for the news to be announced on the day of Newton's theatrical release across India -- the stars are truly aligning for us. The critics have spoken, and now we cannot wait for our Indian audiences to go watch the film in the theatres."
The film is a political satire revolving around an honest election officer's attempt to conduct a free and fair poll in a conflict-hit area of Chhatisgarh.
It also stars Pankaj Tripathi, Raghubir Yadav and Anjali Patil.
"Newton" is Masurkar's second directorial venture after the 2014 indie "Sulemani Keeda".
(PTI)
