ASSAMESE Movie VILLAGE Rock Star Is India’s Official Entry For the Oscar
VILLAGE Rock Star written, directed and co-produced by Assam’s Rima Das (in pic) will represent India as the country’s official selection for the 91st Edition of Oscar to be held from February 24 It will compete in the Oscars’ Foreign Language category. A 12-membere jury headed by SV Rajendra Singh Babu, made this announcement on Saturday The film made on a shoe string t budget and shot Rima Das’ village, has won the Swarna Kamal as the best Indian feature film made in 2017.It was shot on a handheld camera .The self-taught filmmaker, daughter of a school teacher, who is currently at her village, Kalardiya, in Assam’s Chhayagaon, is indeed excited,
She says Village Rockstars was made over four years, shot on a handheld camera, and used a cast of non-actors, sourced almost in totality, from the village of Kalardiya. The movie is about of a ten-year-old girl played by child actor Bhanita Das with dreams to form her own rock band. She goes in search of an electric guitar in her village which were declared at New Delhi on 13 April 2018.Village Rockstars also won awards in three other categories: Best Child Artist, Best Location Sound Recordist and Best Editing.
In an earlier interview to The Indian Express, Das had said “I did not have any storyboard for Village Rockstars. Since there was no crew, I did not use any artificial light. I shot in the magic light — in the morning and afternoon when the sunlight is not harsh. All the actors, barring well-known Assamese actor Kulada Bhattyacharya, who appears as a wise man, are from my village. And they literally learned how to act under .”A total of 29 Indian films including Raazi, Padmaava,t Hichki, October, Love Sonia, Gulabjaam, Mahanati, Pihu, Kadvi Hawa, Bhogda, Revaa, Bioscopewala, Manto, 102 Not out, Padman, Bhayanakam, Ajji, Nude, Gali Guliiyan were submitted as nominations.
A few countries have already announced their candidates for the prestigious prize. While Lebanon has selected Capharnaum, Indonesia picked the feminist neo-western flick Marlina the Murder In Four Acts for the 91st Academy Awards. Norway, in fact, chose Iram Haq’s What Will People Say — whose protagonist is incidentally actor Adil Husain, also from small-town Assam — as its official entry.
or the 2018 Oscars, Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi starrer Newton had been pitched for the top honour. However, the Amit Masurkar film failed to make the cut. It did not even make it to the list of the final nine films picked for the voting round. As far as India is concerned, only three films until now have made it till the last round and were, as a result, nominated in the foreign language film category – Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957), Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988), and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan (2001).
For Assam, the entry is already making waves — this is the first time an Assamese film has received such global — even national — attention. “It is a big deal because when you don’t receive recognition, you feel things are not possible. It stops people from trying. Such news makes me feel that things are possible,” said Das, whose new film Bulbul Can Sing premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.Hima Das 36, says he always wanted to become an actor. She was just six years old when she first acted on the stage.After the completion of her masters in Pune , she even cleared the National Eligibility Test examination, but it was for her passion for acting and filmmaking that brought her to Mumbai. She moved to Mumbai as an acting aspirant and did some plays in her early days. One such play was an adaption of Munshi Premchand’s Godaan staged at the Prithvi Theatre. But soon, she realized that there were fewer work opportunities in the acting field .She was not getting any work for long. The circumstances pushed her into depression, and gradually, her interest grew in the filmmaking. She started taking interest in filmmaking by reading articles and watching videos online. By watching and observing the films of renowned directors, she got a good idea about directing films. Her first short film was ‘Pratha’ which was released in 2009.
