Rishab Shetty announces Kantara joins Oscars race; Qualifies for Best Picture and Best Actor

After SS Rajamouli, another South film that has reached the Oscars 2023 is Rishab Shetty‘s blockbuster entertainer Kantara. The divine drama, which earned applause worldwide, has now qualified for the Academy Awards contention list under two categories. The film is reportedly qualified for the Oscars under the Best Picture and Best Actor categories.

Rishab Shetty on Tuesday took to Twitter and announced that Kantara has received two Oscar qualifications ahead of the nomination list announcement. However, they didn’t mention the Oscars qualifications categories. The Kantara actor and the director wrote on Twitter, “We are overjoyed to share that ‘Kantara’ has received 2 Oscar qualifications! A heartfelt thank you to all who have supported us. We look forward to share this journey ahead with all of your support. Can’t wait to see it shine at the  #Oscars #Kantara @hombalefilms #HombaleFilms.”

This means that the film is eligible for Oscar members to cast a vote to push it through to the main nominations. The nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 24. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 12, 2023.

About Kantara

Rishab Shetty’s Kantara proved that when content is good, language is not a factor. Kantara was always intended to be a Kannada release alone and despite the language barrier, the film performed tremendously well in all the different regions through the aid of English subtitles. The film was later released in all South languages and Hindi.

Kantara, which is written and directed by Rishab Shetty, is set in the backdrop of the Keraadi region of coastal Karnataka. The actor-filmmaker has also played the lead role in the blockbuster movie, which is bankrolled by Vijay Kiragandur under the prestigious banner Hombale Films.

The highly acclaimed film features Sapthami Gowda, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty, and others in pivotal roles. Ajaneesh Loknath composed the music for Kantara. Arvind S Kashyap is the director of photography. The film crossed the Rs 400-crore mark in gross collections worldwide, making it only the second Kannada film ever to do so.
 

Indian films for the Oscars

In October 2022, the Gujarati movie Last Film Show (Chello Show) was announced as India’s official entry to the prestigious award night. The film has been selected as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars.

SS Rajamouli, Ram Charan, and Jr NTR’s Naatu Naatu song from RRR has also been shortlisted in the Best Original Song category. 

For unversed, the makers of SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus sent the ‘For Your Consideration’ campaign for the Academy award nominations. The blockbuster movie submitted in 14 categories, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director (SS Rajamouli), Best Actor in a lead role (Ram Charan and Jr NTR), Best Actors in a supporting role (Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn), and others. Veteran musician SS Keeravani is also in the race for Oscar nominations, in the Best Original Score category. 

Rishab Shetty’s Kantara also submitted nominations for the Oscars 2023 in December. In an interview with India Today, the producer of Kantara, Vijay Kirgandur confirmed the same and said they are hoping for the best. The producer said, “We have submitted our application for Oscars for Kantara and have our fingers crossed as the final nominations are yet to come.” He mentioned that Kantara as a story is so rooted that we hope it can find a voice worldwide as well.

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