The film starring Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad, in the lead roles, beat stiff competition to secure its place in the Oscar race. The film reportedly went up against Amitabh Bachchan-Ayushmann Khurranan’s lead, ‘Gulabo Sitabo’, Priyanka Chopra, star of ‘The Sky is Pink’, Deepika Padukone’s ‘Chhapaak’, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s ‘Serious Men’ and even to the protagonist of Janhvi Kapoor. Gunjan Saxena.
The Malayalam film was chosen from 27 films that also included ‘The Disciple’, ‘Shakuntala Devi’, ‘Shikara’, ‘AK vs AK’, ‘Bhonsle’, ‘Chhalaang’, ‘Eeb Allay Ooo!’, ‘Check Post’ , ‘Atkan Chatkan’, ‘Kaamyaab’, ‘Chintu ka’s Birthday’ and ‘Bittersweet’.
‘Jallikattu’ is based on a short story, titled ‘Maoist’, written by Hareesh S, who also adapted the script together with R. Jayakumar.
This selection makes it the third Malayalam film selected as India’s entry in the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category.
Previously, in 2011 ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ by director Salim Ahamed was selected and in 1997 ‘Guru’ by director Rajiv Anchal was chosen. However, both films did not land a spot on the Academy Award nominations list.
If ‘Jallikattu’ gets its golden ticket to the Oscars, it will be only the fourth Indian film nominated in the category.
The 93rd Academy Awards was one of many things that was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show was originally scheduled for February 28. However, citing delays in movie premieres and theaters closing due to the pandemic, both the ceremony and the eligibility period were postponed by two months.
The shortlist of 10 will be announced on February 9, 2021.
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