The year 2003 may be a good year for the Hindi film industry at the box office with hits like Bhoot, Chalte Chalte and Koi... Mil Gaya. Unfortunately, not so at the 76th annual Academy Awards.
This year, no Indian film will be nominated for the Oscars in the foreign languages category.
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The Film Federation of India was given only six Hindi films to choose from: Koi... Mil Gaya, Gangaajal, Jajantaram Mamantaram, Jhankaar Beats, Andaaz and Joggers' Park. None of them was selected as the official Indian entry for the Oscars.
Last year, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was India's official entry to the prestigious awards, but it did not win a nomination.
In 2001, the Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan had won an Oscar nomination, making it the third Indian film to do so after Mother India (1957) and Salaam Bombay (1988). Unfortunately, Lagaan lost out to Bosnia's No Man's Land.
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