'Liar's Dice' is India's entry for Oscar

Liar's Dice

National Award winning Hindi film 'Liar's Dice', starring acclaimed actors Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, has been zeroed in on as India's entry for the best foreign film category at the 87th Academy Awards.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Manya Gupta and Geetanjali Thapa in 'Liar's Dice'. Directed by Geetu Mohandas, it had its world premiere at the 2013 Mumbai Film Festival and has been touring the festival circuit ever since.

The film has been chosen by a 12-member jury appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI), and out of a record number of 30 shortlisted films.

The official announcement came at day before the press conference was to be held at Hyderabad on September 24. A source close to Film Federation of India, the body which selects the film said, "The jury had finished watching all the 30 films so decided to announce the name on Tuesday."

"'Liar's Dice' is the chosen film as India's Oscar entry this time," Supran Sen, general secretary, FFI, told IANS.

The movie, debut directed by Malayalam actress Geetu Mohandas, tells the story of a young tribal mother who, along with her three-year-old daughter, embarks on a journey in search of her missing husband. On the way, she meets an army deserter, who decides to accompany them to their destination.

'Liar's Dice' won the best cinematography honour for Rajeev Ravi and best actress title for Geetanjali at the 61st National Film Awards.

Some of the names that were on the list are Omung Kumar's Mary Kom, Pradeep Sarkar's Mardaani, Vikas Bahl's Queen, Syed Ahmed Afzal's Youngistaan, Hansal Mehta's Shahid and Karan Johar's 2 States. Some of the Marathi films include Abhijit Panse' Rege, Paresh Mokashi's Elizabeth, Fandry and Ritiesh Deshmukh's Yellow. National award winning Bengali film Jateshwar was also on the list.

-With inputs from Bharati Dubey