Bollywood feature film "Gully Boy", featuring Ranveer Singh in the role of a new rapper who dreams it big, has been chosen as India's official entry in the foreign category at the Oscars, the Film Federation of India (FFI) announced on Saturday.
The film, directed by Zoya Akhtar, was released commercially across the country on February 14, also has in its cast Alia Bhatt, Vijay Raaz, Kalki Koechlin, Vijay Varma and Amruta Subhash.
Gully Boy", produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, features Ranveer as an up-and-coming rapper who sets out to achieve his dream by rhyming about his life on the streets of Mumbai.
"India's official entry for Oscars this year is 'Gully Boy'. There were 27 films in the running this year but it was an unanimous decision to select 'Gully Boy'," FFI Secretary General Supran Sen said.
Veteran actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen was the head of the jury for this year's selection committee. "The energy of the film was infectious. It will speak to the audience," Aparna said on "Gully Boy" being the final pick of the jury. Besides "Gully Boy", other Bollywood films competing for the Oscar entry were "Badhaai Ho", "Andhadhun", "Article 15", "Uri: The Surgical Strike", "Badla", "Kesari" and "The Tashkent Files".
Farhan Akhtar took to the Twitter to congratulate the team behind the film which was one of the most critically-acclaimed Hindi movies of 2019. No Indian feature film has so far won an Oscar.
