'Metro' to screen at Oscars

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
An Indian film might not yet have bagged an Oscar, but Indian movies continue to reign at the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscars, has asked UTV for the screenplay of its film 'Metro' for its permanent script collection at the library.

The movie, which has grossed around Rs 20 crore in the two weeks of its opening in India, will be a part of the library which preserves screenplays of films, visuals and publicity material and even biographies of people from the year 1910. 'Metro' follows in the footsteps of 'Eklavya', Big B's blockbuster title and is the second movie to be chosen this year for the library collection. 'Metro' will share shelf space in the library with the likes of 'Beau Geste', 'The Maltese Falcon', 'The Triplets of Belleville', 'Born into Brothels', 'Finding Nemo', 'Million Dollar Baby' and 'The Passion of the Christ', which feature in the library.

On the Indian front, films like 'Lage Raho Munnabhai', 'Swades', 'Parineeta', 'Eklavya', 'Ek Ajanbee' are some of the mainline Hindi films which are a part of the library. The library has one of the world's most extensive and comprehensive research collections on the subject of motion pictures.

Ram Mirchandani, Senior VP-Creative and Projects, UTV Motion Pictures says that "This is the changing phase of Indian cinema, whether its iffy, Cannes, Toronto film festival Indian films are a vital part of it. Especially recently there has been a growth in niche low budget, good scripted films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry and Metro that have created it's own space in the sun.'

"The fact that the movie was chosen is a great honour for India, especially since it is not a blockbuster in the real sense of the term. The small, niche film genre has been making its mark in India," adds Mirchandani.