Actor Sayani Gupta is ecstatic as Shameless, a short film which features her in the cast, is India’s entry for Oscars 2021 in the Live-Action Short Film category. “We got the news a while back. Because of the pandemic, it’s been very different, and we didn’t know the right way to go about it. We were going up in the list of the top five films that could qualify, praying it would make it. Finally it did, and we thought ‘should we share it, I don’t want to jinx it!’ But it’s out, and it’s great,” she laughs.

“The director of Shameless, Keith Gomes is very excited. Also, when you make a short film, we made it with literally a very small budget, it’s a tiny film. And there are just few actors,” she shares, adding, “You make it, not thinking this will happen. A lot of people don’t take short films seriously in our country.”

But the 35-year-old, who has been part of films such as Margarita With A Straw (2015), Fan (2016) and Jolly LLB 2 (2017), says she refuses to be carried away by the development. “Even with the International Emmy nomination (for Four More Shots Please!), I was like, ‘okay’.” What makes her so detached? “As a person, few things affect me. The only thing I feel good or bad about, is ‘mera din ka shot kaisa gaya’,” says Gupta, adding the two awards she aspires for are the “Oscar and National Award” for acting.