The latest film produced by Aamir Khan, Peepli [Live], has been selected as India’s official entry to next year’s Oscars.
Depicting the growing rural-urban divide in the country, the film will represent India in the Best Foreign Film category. “Peepli [Live] has been selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars out of 27 films,” stated Film Federation of India secretary-general Supran Sen.
Directed by debutante Anusha Rizvi, the film stars theatre actors and was shot in a small village in Madhya Pradesh. The movie takes potshots at the media and the political system. It is the story of Natha, a poor farmer from Peepli village who is about to lose his plot of land and seeks a way out by committing suicide and gaining government compensation for his family. What ensues is a drama involving politicians, bureaucrats, henchmen and the ever-zealous media as they descend upon sleepy Peepli.
This is the third film from Aamir Khan’s production house that has been selected to compete at the prestigious Academy Awards. His previous films, Lagaan (2001) and Taare Zameen Par (2007), were also selected to represent India at the Oscars. Lagaan, which had Aamir playing a farmer during the British Raj, made it to the shortlist of five but lost to the Bosnian war film No Man’s Land.