Bhavna doesn’t regret taking on Vidhu Chopra

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Back in 2007, when Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard was chosen as India’s official entry for the Oscars, it generated a buzz of a rather different nature. Debutant director Bhavna Talwar made a case out for her film Dharm, insisting that it should have been the one chosen instead, and that Chopra’s film got the nod only because of his “connections”.
Four years have passed since, and a lot of water has flown under the bridge. Bhavna is ready with her sophomore offering Happi, but stands by her decision to take on the might of Vidhu Vinod Chopra. “I was very upset emotionally at the time, and wondered how a film like Eklavya could have been chosen over Dharm. Today, I can look back at the entire incident dispassionately, but that doesn’t mean I regret it,” she says.
In fact, things got so bad that Bhavna had sent a legal notice to the Film Federation of India, alleging that the selection of Eklavya was biased and intended to wrongfully benefit the producer. She also filed a complaint in the Bombay high court, accusing the selection committee of bias. “Why should that have been avoided? I raised my voice as I felt injustice was being done. I had nothing to lose but my integrity,” she says firmly, adding, “If something like that happens again, I will act in the same way. I will stick to my stand as far as my belief in fairness is concerned.”