Mumbai, Oct. 14: A jury today remained undecided on “self-corrective” steps on the choice of Eklavya The Royal Guard as India’s official Oscar entry.
Vinod Pandey, who heads the panel, said another meeting of the jury, appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI), will be held next week but did not say exactly when.
Today’s meeting was held after the federation told Bombay High Court last week that it was “embarrassed by the controversy” over the selection of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya.
In its submission, the federation had promised to call a meeting of the jury to address objections raised by director Bhavna Talwar, whose Dharm was also in the running for the nomination, over the composition of the panel.
Bhavna and her producer-husband Sheetal had filed the petition in the high court saying the federation’s selection process was biased in favour of Eklavya. She argued that some members of the committee, directors Sudhir Mishra, Jagdish Sharma and Ranjit Bahadur, were “very close” to Chopra. Bahadur was the editor of Making of Eklavya, a promotional film on Eklavya, she said.
A bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud had observed during the petition’s first hearing that “prima facie” there seemed merit in the Talwars’ argument. The judges told the federation that “the consequences of the film’s (Eklavya) selection would be subject to the court’s order”.
Apart from Pandey, those who attended this afternoon’s meeting of the jury included Jagdish Sharma, Nadeem Khan, Jalees Sherwani, Bijay Kalyani and Ravi K. Mishra. Bahadur stayed away.
“It (the meeting) was to take self-corrective steps following the court intervention. We discussed the issue of legitimacy of some members and the voting process. But the meeting remained inconclusive,” Pandey said.
Dharm producer Sheetal felt that it was all a waiting game. “It’s procrastination now. The FFI is just delaying its decision. But we have no choice but to wait for the jury decision before we decide the next course of action.”
