Newton selected as India's official entry to the Oscars

Mumbai: After the movie was selected as India's official entry to the Oscars, 'Newton' director Amit V Masurkar stated that the film explores a story in a political space which is otherwise lesser known to urban India.

Set against the backdrop of elections in the world's largest democracy, the film was on Friday, announced as India's official entry for the the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. It's team is ecstatic.

"Newton", directed by Amit V. Masurkar and starring the stellar Rajkummar Rao, was chosen from among 26 titles from different languages by a 14-member jury appointed by the Film Federation of India.

"It was a unanimous decision. Titles like 'Dangal' and 'Mukti Bhavan' were part of the list," Supran Sen, secretary general of FFI said.

"I always wanted to explore a story about the political space lesser known to urban India," said Masurkar further calling it a narration of ideological battle between the government and the maoists.

'Newton', which deals with the ideological battle between the government and Maoists, has been selected by a 14-member jury constituted by the Film Federation of India and will represent the country at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category in 2018.

The story of the film revolves around a young government employee Newton Kumar -- essayed by the critically acclaimed Rajkummar Rao -- who is sent out to execute an election in a Maoist-prone area in Chhattisgarh.

"Newton" is Masurkar's second film after "Sulemani Keeda". What made him choose a political subject that's quite complicated and not as popular in the cine space as the Kashmir issue or the political crisis of northeastern states?

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Here is how Masurkar describes the film and the happiness...

I wanted to tell a story in the political space.

The reason for choosing Chhattisgarh is that the issue here is different from the two that you have mentioned.

Naxals are not asking for a separate country or fighting for development or seeking an answer to any injustice.

The battle is from the ideological differences on democracy. Naxals want to bring a change in democracy by establishing a communist rule.

Therefore, the story of the film is quite clear - a government, an opposition to the government and then there is a man who represents the government, who is honestly trying to do his duty and struggling on his way.

I showed the script to a couple of studios who said that 'Oh, it's politics... Youth have no interest in it'.

The moment I narrated the story to Manish (Manish Mundra of Drishyam Films), he said 'Yes' in no time.

He has got a great taste for stories and understands the pulse of the audience.

It was later that producer Aanand L. Rai and a banner like Eros International Entertainment came on board. I showed Aanand sir the film and he liked the film and decided to be a part of its release and of course, I am thankful for that but what touched me is, how he remembered me.

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I once assisted him 14 years ago for one of his telefilms. He is such a gem of a person. He came out after watching the film, remembering me, saying, 'I am so proud of you Amit, tu kitna bada ho gaya (You've grown up so much)! You made this film."

The movie, which released on Friday, has been raved about by critics and the film fraternity. It had premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

I made some small changes according to the talent of the actors. Like Pankaj Tripathi is such a brilliant actor who has a command over Hindi, so we wrote the dialogues for him accordingly.

The Cast:

Rajkummar plays the lead character in the film, but according to the director, all the characters in the film have been written substantially to build the story.

The character of Raghubir Yadav was also elaborated according to his calibre and Rajkummar was the first choice because there are some of the strong similarities of personality between him and Newton, stated Masurkar.

They are both quite sincere in their job and idealistic.

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Expectations from the film:

The director hopes that in a scenario where the taste of the Indian audience is changing, they embrace a movie like 'Newton'.

"We are just putting the film out there and leaving the rest to the audience," he said.