‘Chhello Show’ producer Siddharth Roy Kapur on IFTDA, FWICE calling film a copy of ‘Cinema Paradiso'

Gujarati film ‘Chhello Show’, which narrates the story of young boy's love affair with cinema, is India’s official entry to Oscars this year. However, many people have opposed the Film Federation of India’s decision, including Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) and Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), who allege that the Pan Nalin-directorial is a copy of 1988 Italian movie ‘Cinema Paradiso’. The movie had won an Academy Award in the Best International Feature film category.

‘Chhello Show’s producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has now responded to the allegations by IFTDA and FWICE. Speaking with indianexpress.com, he shared the timeline of his association with the film and discussed how he is planning to promote the film for the Academy members.

He reacted to ‘Chhello Show’ being compared with Italian film Cinema Paradiso, and said, ‘I think we should look at the future since we’re representing India now and we’ve been selected by the Film Federation of India (FFI). We’re honoured and privileged to be given the responsibility to represent our country. Film is such a subjective medium, and everyone will have an opinion on it, nothing is black or white. There’s a jury that was put together and they selected us. We will do our best to bring glory to the country, that’s where I’d like to leave it. It is a free country and everyone is entitled to an opinion. We are passionate people and films is a passionate business, so I think it is only right for people have passions when they believe in one movie over another, there’s really nothing wrong in that.’

Siddharth, who watched the film ahead of its selection for the Oscars, said that he wants everyone to watch the film and fall in love with the cinemas again.

Previously, Kapur has been associated with films like ‘Peepli Live’ (2010) and ‘Barfi’ (2012), that were selected as India’s official entries at the Oscars.

‘I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of many films that have been India’s official selection in the last decade. A lot of people talk about lobbying and make it sound like a deep dark secret and a lot of smoke and mirrors, but it really is about getting as many members of the Academy to watch you film as possible. It really boils down to that. Because they’re the ones who’re going to vote for you and they’re the ones who need to watch your film. We’re very proud of the film that we’re representing and we’re happy for our film to speak for itself, Kapur told indianexpress.com.

Kapur is excited to distribute ‘Chhello Show’ in India, as it will remind people, how they fell in love with movies in a darkened cinema halls.