Amitabh Bachchan in Eklavya-The Royal Guard

Oscar-nominated Eklavya-The Royal Guard was today dragged to court on allegations of bias, bringing the entire selection process for the Academy awards into glare.

Sheetal and Bhavna Talwar, whose Dharm lost out to the Vidhu Vinod Chopra film in the Oscar race, moved Bombay High Court alleging the choice was “biased” as some members on the selection committee were “very close” to Chopra.

“Dharm was deliberately sidelined to make way for a big-budget film with big names,” producer Sheetal told The Telegraph about the Amitabh Bachchan starrer.

He said the basic criteria for any selection process were that it should be fair, unbiased and transparent. In case of the Oscar nominations, “why is the jury fixed and rigged”? he asked.

“When Sudhir Mishra (a jury member) announced the Oscar nominee, he said Vidhu Vinod Chopra was like his brother. What kind of principles are these? The jury members have said they were under pressure.”

The court has observed that “there seems to be merit” in the argument. It has asked the Film Federation of India that selected Eklavya to reply to its notices in 10 days and held that “the film’s selection would be subject to the court order”.

Sheetal claimed Dharm got a raw deal because the jury felt its makers — “inexperienced” and “lacking in financial resources” — would not be able to promote the film on a global platform.

But the most important criterion to select a film was that it should represent Indian ethos and issues, he said.

“This just goes to show that awards are all about lobbying and marketing. Chopra with his media clout and money forged his way through,” another film director, Sunil Darshan, said.

Sheetal is not the first person to question the selection process. When Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Paheli was picked ahead of Black and Swades last year, there was outrage. In 2003, the selection of Devdas had raised eyebrows.

“This is not the first time something like this has happened. Everyone remembers what happened last year. We thought it was time to ask some questions on the process of selection of the jury and the selection of the films,” Sheetal said.

There are two stages in the selection process, and the onus lies on the Film Federation of India.

First, it asks its 34 constituent bodies to send in nominations for the jury. Once the 10 or 11 members are in place, they are asked to shortlist films from the several entries. The final selection is through voting by secret ballot.

Eklavya was picked from 11 films — seven Hindi and four Tamil. The others include Chak De! India, Swami, Gandhi My Father, Guru, Vivaah (all Hindi), Paruthi Veeran, Mozhi, Veyil and Inimey Nangathan. Eklavya won the final toss-up, trumping Dharm 6:5.

Chopra denied that he had pressured the jury in any way. “I have never objected to Paheli or any other film getting selected for the Oscars when they won against my more popular movies like Munnabhai MBBS or Parineeta.

“Ms (Bhavna) Talwar is creating a controversy which can only damage the Indian film industry’s reputation internationally. I am very sorry that this has happened.”