A still from Rang De Basanti

Calcutta, Oct. 1: The Indian presence at the Academy Awards is getting hotter by the day. While it’s early days to actually imagine an Oscar nomination, the Indian films are on an extended drive to make it to Kodak Theatre in March 2007.

On Monday, Rang De Basanti was chosen by the Film Federation of India as the country’s official entry to the 79th Annual Academy Awards. On Friday, Lage Raho Munnabhai producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra announced that he is entering his film into the race independently in the mainline categories (not for the best foreign film award).

And now UTV, the Rang De producer, has retaliated to Vinod Chopra Films’ move by announcing that the Rakeysh Mehra film will also compete in seven other mainline categories.

While Rang De will vie for the ultimate accolade — the Oscar for Best Picture — Mehra will compete for the best director trophy. Binod Pradhan will have a shot at the best cinematography Oscar while the Mehra-Rensil D’Silva duo will be up for the best original screenplay award.

P.S. Bharati will contest for the Best Editing Oscar while Samir Chanda will be in the race for best art direction. The sound editing team of Baylon Fonseca and Nakul Kamte will also be in contention in their category.

UTV is very clear that its main aim is the Oscar for the best foreign film, which many film critics around the world believe is booked for Pedro Almodovar’s Spanish masterpiece Volver.

“Although outside the foreign language film category, we have also applied in seven mainline categories, our focus will remain the foreign film category,” said Ronnie Screwvala, the UTV chief executive officer.

Reacting to Lage Raho being separately sent to the Oscars, he said: “In the foreign language category, no other film can apply from India. Therefore, Rang De Basanti will not be competing with any Indian film.”