Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap, who is upset that his film "The Lunchbox" was ruled out of the Oscar race, has deleted his Twitter account.
Kashyap, one of the producers of the Irrfan Khan starrer, has earned rave reviews upon its release and was expected to be India's Oscar entry. But the Film Federation of India's (FFI) announced "The Good Road" to represent India, which apparently didn't go down well with the director.
The director, who took to Twitter with a series of disapproving rants, had expressed disappointment at FFI's choice of the Gujarati film over the internationally acclaimed "The Lunchbox".
On Monday, a frustrated Kashyap finally bid adieu to Twitter saying, "Bye bye twitter. Enough feeding the wannabe journal..."
He found support in Karan Johar who tweeted, "Really shocked and dissapointed....#LUNCHBOX had every factor working in its favour...we may have just lost our golden chance....SAD!!"
As questions were raised about the credibility of "The Good Road"s for making it to the Oscar list, Goutam Ghose, Chief of the FFI jury, has spoken out on the decision.
Ghose in an interview to The Times of India revealed that "The Lunchbox" was his close favourite, but explained the final decision has to be based on the opinion of the jury members.
"The Lunchbox was on top of my list, but there were 15 other people on the jury as well," said Ghosh. "I am not the only one who decides which film will go. It is a 16-member panel. But yes, 'The Lunchbox' definitely was a stand-out film."
On filmmaker Gyan Correa's "The Good Road", Ghose said, "For me, it was the second best film on the shortlist. The jury, probably thought the innate Indian-ness of 'The Good Road' made it a better bet. It's a film that explores the lives of people in Rann of Kutch, something we don't know of."
However, Ghose, who is also a filmmaker, pointed that the Irrfan starrer has an edge over the Gujarati film. "It has been appreciated at foreign festivals, has an international distributor like Sony Pictures Classics, and a good cast. That's why it would have been easier to convince the Oscar jury. The producers of 'The Good Road' have to work hard to catch international attention."
