'We hope to bring Oscar home very soon'

Pan Nalin's Chhello Show, a coming-of-age story of a boy in a village in Gujarat dreaming about making films, has made it to the Oscar shortlist.

This, despite the fact that the producers and director had no budget for a proper campaign in LA.

Reacting to the big news, Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, Producer Dheer Momaya and Director Pan Nalin jointly said in a statement: 'We are humbled and overjoyed that our heartfelt ode to the cinematic medium Last Film Show (Chhello Show) has been recognised by the world's pre-eminent awards body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

'This is a historic moment for India and we hope to bring the Oscar home very soon.'

Chhello Show will compete with Germany's All Quiet In The Western Front, Argentina's Argentina, 1985, Mexico's Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, Sweden's Cairo Conspiracy, Morocco's The Blue Caftan, Belgium's Close, Austria's Corsage, South Korea's Decision To Leave, Poland's EO, Denmark's Holy Spider, Pakistan's Joyland, Ireland's The Quiet Girl, Cambodia's Return To Seoul and France's Saint Omer.

M M Keeravani's song in S S Rajamouli's RRR -- Naatu Naatu -- has made it to the shortlist for the Oscars' Best Original Song list.

A list of 15 songs have been selected, out of which five will finally get nominated.

A previous version of this report mentioned that Director S S Rajamouli had invested a rumoured Rs 80 crores (Rs 800 million) on a campaign to get RRR the nod from the American Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences for a nomination in the Oscars international film category.

As a reader Bikram Baruti pointed out, that is not correct as Chhello Show is India's official entry for the best international film category.

Rajamouli hopes RRR, which has been appreciated by several American critics, will feature in the 10 films shortlisted in the best film category.