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Devdas, Bend It Like Beckham for BAFTA
Devdas has been nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the British Academy and Bend It Like Beckham in the Outstanding British Film category.
There is no stopping Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham marching on to more glory. After picking up various awards and accolades, it has now been short-listed in the Outstanding British Film category in the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA).
Also alongwith Chadha's film is another Asian venture Asif Kapadia's in the Outstanding British Film list. Bhansali's magnum opus also figures in the shortlist of Best Foreign Language Film, making in total three offerings by Indians in the BAFTA nominations.
Kapadia has also been listed in the shortlist for the Best Debut by a Director, Screenwriter or Producer.
The shortlisting of Bend It Like Beckham and The Warrior in the Outstanding British Film category symbolises the final seal of recognition of the British Asian film-makers.
It will boost the production of films by Asians, some of whom were so far inhibited by the uncertainty of returns in this country and acceptance in foreign lands, particularly India.
In fact, box-office statistics show that Bend It Like Beckham alongwith a few other films have pushed cinema admissions over the past year up by 13 per cent, to 176 million. It has helped Britain overtake Germany for the first time since the 1970s to become the second biggest market in Europe.
Alongwith Bend It Like Beckham and The Warrior, the other films in the Outstanding British Film shortlist are Dirty Pretty Things, The Hours and The Magdalene Sisters.
Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Two Towers and The Pianist have been shorlisted for the Best Film award. The Hours based on the lifeand writings of Virginia Woolf has moved closer to Oscar contention by picking up 11 BAFTA nominations. But critics say it will face tough competition from Chicago.
Sir Ian McKellen, breaking off from rehearsals for Dance of Death announced in the nominations. He said it is always a problem to decide what is a British movie.
"Harry Potter was written in this country, the movie was made in this country with a British cast and British producer, and yet there was an American director and all the money was foreign."
He also said that many other films which do not figure in the nominations were very good ones. Not being selected did not signify that they were poorly produced.
