mumbai asif kapadias the warrior starring mumbai actor irfan khan which was sent as the uks official entry for the oscar for best foreign language film has been rejected by the academy awards committee a key uk insider on the film team revealed no official reasons have been given for the rejection apparently the reasons were that it is made in a language not indigenous to the uk the film is in hindi that it was not shot in the uk community it was shot mainly in rajasthan and the himalayas and that it was produced by a company set up in the uk as a matter of conveniencein fact the film has been produced by filmfour a very british film company as well as the francebased bertrand faivrethe oscar committee has accepted a british substitute tim lyns welsh film eldra about a gypsy girl in the 30sthe source added we are planning to contest the decision when the academy awards committee communicated its decision the british academy of film and television arts bafta the uks official body which selected the film as the british entry sent it a twopage letter reiterating the reasons for the eligibility of the film but they are still to get an answeraccording to the source rule 14 of the oscar regulations already permit that the film must be made in the language indigenous to the nation unless the storyline dictates that another language predominate therefore we have a tiny hope of reversing the decision which was made on paper without anyone seeing the film or talking to baftaproducer bertrand faivre was unavailable for comment the warrior a tale of redemption of a warrior who wishes to give up violence is not the only casualty hong kongs the touch starring and produced by michelle yeoh has also been rejected for being in english rather than mandarinmoreover the decision of the academy awards appears patently unfair because it has accepted the swedish entry lukas moodyssons lilja 4ever shot almost entirely in russian it is about a hopeful girl who escapes russia only to find another bleak future in swedensays irfan khan who also features in pratha kali salwaa r and the forthcoming haasil i am disappointed for my film and also because one does not expect the us to be so bureaucratic about outdated ruleswhen bafta committee considers hindi an official language of the uk the oscar committee seems to be twisting rules to suit its preferencesits decision is a blow for multiculturalism in cinemaas the warrior insider indignantly observed the oscar committees decision is difficult to understand in this day and age of multiculturalism in fact the us itself is a nation of immigrants and english is not a language indigenous to it eitherlanguage is not the only cloud hovering darkly over the official list of 54 accepted oscar