Several posts on Facebook and X are falsely claiming that Randeep Hooda starrer Swatantrya Veer Savarkar based on the life of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is India's official entry to the Academy Awards this year.
BOOM reached out to Jahnu Barua, chairperson of the Film Federation of India (FFI) and jury of the official selection committee of the applications to choose entry from India for the 97th Academy Awards. Barua confirmed to BOOM that Kiran Rao's film Laapata Ladies is India's official entry to the Oscars.
Furthermore, in an interview Ravi Kottarakara, president of FFI, clarified that Swatantrya Veer Savarkar is not India's official entry for the Oscar Awards and the filmmakers might have submitted it as an independent entry.
On September 23, 2024, FFI announced Laapataa Ladies, featuring Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta and Sparsh Shrivastava as India's official entry for the 97th Academy Awards.
Meanwhile, a user on X wrote, "#जयोस्तुते 🙏🏻🚩The Film Federation of India has selected Swatantrya Veer Savarkar as one of the official entries from India for the Oscars 2024. Producers Anand Pandit, Sandeep Singh, & Randeep Hooda are overjoyed by this recognition and shared their excitement."
See the X post here and archive here.
A Facebook user wrote , "Swatantrya Veer Savarkar" India's entry for 97th Oscars! Congrats Randeep Hooda & team!"
See post here and archive here.
Fact Check
BOOM reached out to veteran filmmaker Jahnu Barua, who headed the jury as the chairperson of the official selection committee of the applications to choose entry from India for the 97th Academy Awards. Barua told BOOM, "Laapata Ladies is the official entry from India for the Oscars. I am not at all aware of the other film (Swatantrya Veer Savarkar) and I will not be able to comment on this same. We have selected Laapata Ladies as per the rules and regulations of the Film Federation of India (FFI)."
Kiran Rao also shared a note on her Instagram account on September 23 after Laapata Ladies was announced as India's official entry to the Oscars. Click here to see.
"Officially Been Submitted For The Oscars"
We also found an Instagram post by Savarkar biopic co-producer Sandeep Singh from September 24, 2024 where he stated that the film has been officially submitted for the Oscars. Sandeep Singh wrote, "Honored and humbled! Our film SwatantryaVeer Savarkar has officially been submitted for the Oscars."
This shows that Singh's film has been "officially submitted" for the Oscars and was not selected as India's official entry by FFI.
Additionally, we reached out to a representative from the Film Federation of India who confirmed that the film Swatantrya Veer Savarkar was submitted individually. The FFI representative told BOOM, "As the jury we can select only one film that is the official entry to the Oscars from India. Laapaata Ladies was our unanimous choice."
A Hindustan Times report further stated that as per the rules of the Academy Awards one country can officially send only one film for the Best Feature Film category. However, filmmakers can submit their films as independent entries; which might have been the case for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. This happened previously when SS Rajamouli submitted RRR independently for the 2023 Academy Awards and Naatu Naatu from the film went on to win the award in the Best Original Song category. That year India's official entry for Oscars was the Gujarati film Chello Show.
With inputs from Swasti Chatterjee