Famous actor Adil Hussain has requested the Assam government to release Rs 5 crore for the promotion of Rima Das’ Assamese film “Village Rockstars” across India.
The National Award winning film was chosen to represent India in the Best Foreign Language category at the 91st Academy Awards to be held next year, SV Rajendra Singh Babu, Chairman, Selection Committee for Oscar Award, Film Federation of India (FFI) on Saturday.
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Singh Babu who is also a veteran film producer, stated that there is an ‘acute lack of funds’ to carry out the required promotional activities effectively, which is why many Indian movies haven’t made it to the final round apart from the ‘Mother India’ (1957), ‘Salaam Bombay!’ (1988) and ‘Lagaan’ (2001).
The statement left the Assamese actor ‘flummoxed. “The governments have so much money to promote themselves putting posters all across! After selecting ‘Village Rockstars’, jury says there’s acute lack of funds to promote film at Oscars,” tweeted Adil, whose Norwegian film “What Will People Say” is Norway’s official entry to the Oscars this year.
Adil’s tweets got a reaction from Actor Annup Sonii who expressed disappointment writing: “For the smallest achievement they have big funds but for this… ‘Acute lack of funds’. Eventually it will come down to the filmmaker asking for favours or donations… Sad… Very sad.”
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Another user commented that the taxpayers’ money should not be used for Oscars.
“Is it some kind of national service? Why should we care about an American award? Why can’t film industry fund these expenses?” the user questioned.
To which Adil responded saying late last evening: “Government can use taxpayers’ money to promote India’s image as a supporter of high quality art. That’s what all civilised governments do! ‘Village Rockstars’ is an independent film. It’s not a mainstream run-of-the-mill film.
“Government’s responsibility is to support fine art of any discipline.”
Set in Das’ own village of Chhaygaon in Assam, ‘Village Rockstars’ tells a story of ‘poor but amazing children’ who live a fun-filled life. The film made its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and has traveled to more than 70 prestigious international and national film festivals. The film won the Best Feature film Award at the 65th National Film Awards in April this year.
“‘Village Rockstars’ is a film about dreams and hope. It has transcended so many barriers right from the time of its inception and I am hopeful this time too it will.”, said Das who is hoping for the best as far as funds are concerned to put her film on the Oscars map.
The film is set to release across all the PVR cinemas on 28th September, 2018.