Oscar nominated 'Water' releases in India today

New Delhi, Mar 9 (UNI) After garnering much box office success as well as critical acclaim the world over, the greatest of them being a nomination at the prestigious Oscars awards, Deepa Mehta's 'Water' will have its tryst with the Indian cinegoers today.

Lisa Ray John Abraham-starrer, which has in the past year-and-a- half won acclaim galore on the International film festival circuit, the biggest being its winning a nomination for the Best Foreign Language film category at the Oscars, releases in cinema halls across India today.

The Indian release of 'Water', a film which deals with life of widows in 1930s India, has been made possible by B R Films headed by filmmaker Ravi Chopra (of 'Baghban' and 'Babul' fame).

Mr Chopra, who saw the film at a trial show organized by John Abraham a few months ago, came out highly impressed by the film and immediately decided to take up the film's release in India.

''It is a very cute film, a beautiful love story. When I saw the film, I wondered why no distributor in India had taken up the film's release in India. After all, apart from the fact that it is cinematically brilliant, 'Water' is a film which has won accolades and box office success galore in the US and in this sense made India proud in the West, ''This is all the more reason why I felt people in India should see this film,'' Mr Chopra said.

For the filmmaker, whose recently-released film 'Babul' dealt with the subject of widow remarriage, a potent social issue, promoting a film like 'Water', which also deals with a strong social message, is in line with his company's philosophy of supporting socially relevant cinema.

''We at B R Films have always believed in supporting good films with a socially relevant theme be it films like 'Dhool Ka Phool', 'Naya Daur', 'Nikaah' and 'Dahleez' directed by my father B R Chopra or my earlier film 'Baghban'. 'Water' seemed just the kind of films that B R Films has been supporting over the years,'' Mr Chopra said.

On the film's release in beginning of March, considered a lean period in the film trade, the filmmaker said,'' Firstly, we did not want to release the film amid the cricket fever in late March or beginning of April. Another reason is the fact that while in March there will be less films, releasing it, say, after the World Cup would have meant releasing it amid a crowd of films releasing at that time. So, March 9 is the perfect date for the film's release,'' Mr Chopra said.

Mr Chopra says his decision to take up the release of the film in India was not impelled by the film winning an Oscar nomination.

Incidentally, 'Water', which bagged an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category last month along with 'Pan's Labrinth' (Mexico), 'After The Wedding' (Denmark), 'Days of Glory' and the German Cold War drama 'The Lives of Others', lost the Oscars race to 'The Lives of Others' of Germany.

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