Wondering why Kantara and Vikrant Rona and not KGF-Chapter 2 are on the Oscars reminder list?

Earlier today, the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences released the long list of 301 films that are eligible for voting for the 95thOscar Awards. India has as many as 11 films in contention, including the official entry, Chhello Show and, interestingly, two are Kannada movies – Kantara and Vikrant Rona.

According to the Academy’s rules and regulations, films applying for consideration should have had a theatrical release in one of six qualifying US metro areas - namely Los Angeles country, City of New York, Bay Area, including counties of San Francisco, Marin Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa, Chicaogo (Cook County, Illinois), Miami (Miami-Dade Country, Florida and Atlanta (Fulton County, Georgia – with a minimum of seen consecutive days in the same theatre with three screenings daily, with at least in the time slot between 6 pm and 10 pm daily.

The question then, is, if Kantara and Vikrant Rona met this criteria, how is it that Yash’s KGF: Chapter 2, which literally paved the way for Kannada cinema to go global, is not on the list? KGF-2 had a massive US release raking in $7.45 million, which was second only to the $8.13 million from the Middle East belt. The US and Middle East contributed more than half of KGF-2’s worldwide collections. And yet, KGF-2 is not part of the 301 films.

Hombale Fims, which produced both KGF: Chapter 2 and Kantara, had tweeted about the latter’s inclusion on the list and netizens have been responding how Yash has been instrumental in putting the banner on the global map, first with KGF-1 and then the sequel. Is this their way of asking why KGF-2 hasn’t made it to the list. A source tells us, “The simple reason could be that Hombale Films did not apply for KGF: Chapter 2, even though it most definitely meets all the eligibility criteria. With Vikrant Rona, director Anup Bhandari was aware of the process, as he had applied for his Rangitaranga earlier, so he ensured that the film met the criteria and did the needful. It is highly likely that Rishab Shetty (director and actor, Kantara), applied with his film after its unexpected massive box office success, when audiences began hailing his acting prowess, especially in the last 30 minutes.” Another source adds, “If you really want to make it to the Academy’s long list, you just need to buy out the eligibility quota of shows at one of the qualifying theatres, which is what some of the films from India have done.”

The comment section of the official post is a story by itself. See below:

But how is it then that Kantara has two qualifications as against only one for Vikrant Rona? The source adds, “That’s just a piece of good PR. Right now, both the Kannada films, as do the rest of the movies from India, share the same status. They are among the 301 films that the 9,000-odd members of the Academy will vote for over the next few days. Ideally, this should make them eligible for nomination in all categories. However, making it to the list is not an achievement, as anyone with the wherewithal to ensure a US release can do it. Getting members to vote in your favour is the bigger battle and that will require massive lobbying.”