Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy, India’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language category at the 92nd Academy Awards, is out of the Oscars race. On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a shortlist of ten films in the Best International Feature Film category, which will proceed to the next round of voting.
The ten films that have been shortlisted are The Painted Bird (Czech Republic), Truth and Justice (Estonia), Les Misérables (France), Those Who Remained (Hungary), Honeyland (North Macedonia), Corpus Christi (Poland), Beanpole (Russia), Atlantics (Senegal), Parasite (South Korea) and Pain & Glory (Spain).
Gully Boy, inspired by the lives of street rappers Divine and Naezy, told the story of Murad (Ranveer Singh), who rises from the slums of Mumbai and becomes a name to reckon with in the underground rap scene. The film also stars Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Kalki Koechlin and Vijay Varma in key roles. No Indian film has ever won an Oscar. Mother India (1958), Salaam Bombay (1989) and Lagaan (2001) are the only three Indian films which made it to the top five.
Earlier, Ranveer had expressed his happiness when Gully Boy was announced as India’s official entry this year. “It’s a proud moment for our entire team. I’m especially proud of and happy for Zoya! Gully Boy is her baby, and I am blessed to have been a part of her maverick vision,” he told ANI.
“Gully Boy echoed the voice of the streets. It will always be one of my most personal films. As always, I will keep striving towards making the flag of Hindi cinema fly high. I’m very happy that the passionate hard work that our cast and crew put into creating Gully Boy is reaping rewards,” he added, hoping to make a “significant mark on the world stage (Oscars)”.
Alia had said in a statement, “Now, that Gully Boy has been selected as India’s official entry for the Academy, I just hope, pray and wish that we make it to the nomination and then win.” She also said that it was a “big deal” for the entire team. “This is a first and it’s a big deal for us. As a team, we are very excited,” she said.
Director Zoya said, “This has been a great year and I am so overwhelmed with the response our work is getting. I am thrilled and very grateful that ‘Gully Boy’ has been picked as India’s official entry for the Oscars.”
