Malayalam film 'Jallikattu' is India's official Oscar entry

Malayalam film 'Jallikattu' has been selected as India's entry to the 2021 Oscars under the best international feature film category.

The 2019 film, that has already won many accolades, tells the story of the efforts by people of a village to hunt down a bull that escaped from a slaughterhouse in the village.

"There were a total of 27 films that had entered the race from Hindi, Malayalam, Oria and Marathi. The film which has been nominated by the jury to represent India at Oscars is the Malayalam film 'Jallikattu'.

"It is a film that really brings out the raw problems which are there in human beings, that is we are worse than animals," filmmaker Rahul Rawail, Chairman, Jury Board, Film Federation of India, told reporters in an online press conference.

Directed by Lijo Jose Pellisserry, the film won the best director award in International Film Festival of India in 2019 and the second best director in Kerala state film awards - 2019. It is based on a short story titled 'Maoist' by S Hareesh. The film stars actors Antony Varghese and Chemban Vinod Jose in the lead, and received much attention when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Pellissery told a section of media that getting nominated to Oscar itself was a reward to all those who worked for the film.

Pellissery had earlier won several awards for Malayalam film 'Ee Ma Yau', which released in 2018. He has so far directed eight films and won several awards.

The last time a Malayalam film was nominated to Oscar was in 2011, 'Adaminte Makan Abu' directed by Salim Ahamed.

With PTI inputs