Rajkummar Rao’s black comedy drama, the Amit Masurkar-directed Newton, has been selected as India’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 23, 2017)

Amit Masurkar’s black comedy drama Newton, featuring Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathy and Anjali Patil, set against the backdrop of elections in the world’s largest democracy, was announced as India’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards scheduled for March 4, 2018. The film was picked from among 26 titles from different languages by a 14-member jury appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI). It was selected over entries like Dangal and Mukti Bhavan.

Interestingly, in an interview to Mirror (May 20), producer Manish Mundra had said, “I want to bring home an Oscar for India in the Best Foreign Language category. Newton, after winning awards at the Berlinale and the Hong Kong Film Festival, has been invited to 40 film fests across the world. It stands a good chance if it is selected as India’s official entry.”

So far, Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan are the only three Indian films that have made it to the Oscar nominations.

Aanand L Rai, the other producer, along with Manish and Sunil Lulla,admitted that he didn’t believe his company CEO when he informed him about the news and rang up three others to confirm it. “I’m still dizzy, it will take another 48 hours to find my balance and start planning. I’m proud of Amit and Rajkummar for making Newton with so much sincerity,” he said, delighted to be taking the baton from close friend and National Award-winning actor-producer Dhanush whose hard-hitting Tamil film, Visaranai, was in the Oscar race last year. “I’m going to ring up Dhanush and tell him that I’m happy to be continuing his journey.”

His leading man, Raj, is equally excited and ecstatic. “It’s a double celebration for us. The film has opened to amazing reviews and now this! It’s all because of my mother’s blessings and the team’s hard work. I hope we make the country proud.”

When asked how he plans to lobby at the Oscars, Aanand says that the exercise will be taken up professionally by every studio involved and will be a great learning experience. “We will be doing everything that is expected of us,” he states.