Zoya Akhar Is Overwhelmed By Bollywood’s Support For 'Gully Boy' Being Chosen For The Oscars!
Ranveer Singh starrer 'Gully Boy' has been selected as India's official entry to the 92nd Oscar Awards, which is scheduled to take place on February 9 next year. The Zoya Akhtar directorial draws inspiration from the lives of Mumbai street rappers Vivian Fernandes aka Divine and Naved Shaikh aka Naezy and revolves around the underground rap movement in India.
The news was announced on Twitter by film's producer Farhan Akhtar. He wrote, "Gully Boy has been selected as India's official entry to the 92nd Oscar Awards."
Zoya's film has received a number of accolades including the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, South Korea; and Best Film at the Indian Festival of Melbourne in August this year.
In a press statement, Ranveer had said,
“I will keep striving towards making the flag of Hindi cinema fly high. I’m very happy that the passionate hard work that our cast and crew put into creating ‘Gully Boy’ is reaping rewards. It’s a proud moment for our entire team. I’m especially proud of and happy for Zoya! ‘Gully Boy’ is her (Tiger) baby, and I am blessed to have been a part of her maverick vision.”
And now, Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar is overwhelmed with the kind of support that the Hindi film industry has extended to her film, Gully Boy, ever since it was announced as India’s official entry at the Oscars.
"It is overwhelming when you see such positivity from your industry and fraternity. There has been a lot of support and we are just very happy. I am very grateful for this chance," said Zoya, adding that many Bollywood actors and filmmakers have been congratulating the film's team over the past few days. I am very happy for myself, for my production team and my crew. Let's see what happens. Now, the work starts," said the filmmaker.
Recently, the popular Netflix anthology film Lust Stories, which Zoya a co-directed with three others, was nominated for the 2019 International Emmys.
"It's been a very good year. Over the past year, Lust Stories, even Made In Heaven and Gully Boy, have been well received by the audience. So, it's been a positive year and I am very excited," she said.
Talking about her upcoming projects, Zoya said,
"We are working on season 2 of Made In Heaven. After that, we are making another show. Apart from that, Reema (Kagti) and I are scripting my film, and her film. We are also doing a docu-series so, (her production company) Tiger Baby Films is in full swing right now."
Zoya was interacting with the media at a Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival event in Mumbai. 'Gully Boy' also starred Alia Bhatt along with Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Vijay Raaz in pivotal roles.