Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy is India's official Oscar entry; so thrilled, tweets actor Ranveer Singh

The announcement was made by the members of the jury committee here on Saturday.

Gully Boy starred prominent Indian actors- Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt- in the lead roles. In the film, Ranveer, who played the role of a rapper named Murad, had Alia as his onscreen romantic interest.

The Jury Committee chairperson, filmmaker Aparna Sen, said, "The process was very democratic. We took a long time we discussed the films threadbare and each person was asked to write down three films in order of preference.

After that we took a vote; we discussed the films and then we arrived at one film finally and that is Gully Boy. The energy of the film was infectious. It will speak to the audience."

FFI president Firdausul Hasan said: “The event is being held for the first time in Kolkata since the process began in 1957. We decided to hold the screenings in a single plex cinema hall because we want to bring back the glory days of old theatres. So we screened the films in Bijoli Cinema, one of the old single screen theatres of the city.” 

The screening process had started on Sept 16 and ended on Saturday afternoon. 

A total of 28 films were in contention. A Gujarati movie was disqualified, so it had come down to 27 films. The Hindi films vying to be selected were Badhaai Ho, Andhadhun, Article 15, Uri: The Surgical Strike, Badla, Kesari, The Tashkent Files and Gully Boy. 

Following the announcement, Ranveer and Alia said in a similar statement on Twitter, "We are so thrilled that Gully Boy has been selected as India's official entry to the 92nd Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. Thank you to the Film Federation of India, Aparna Sen, Supran Sen, Anindya Dasgupta, members of the jury and a big congratulations to our spectacular cast and crew."

Film producer Farhan Akhtar tweeted, "#GullyBoy has been selected as India’s official entry to the 92nd Oscar Awards. #apnatimeaayega Thank you to the film federation and congratulations #Zoya @kagtireema @ritesh_sid @RanveerOfficial @aliaa08 @SiddhantChturvD @kalkikanmani & cast, crew and hip hop crew."

Bollywood bigwig Karan Johar, reacting to the selection, tweeted: "My absolute favourite film of the year is the official Indian entry for the OSCARS!!!! #GullyBoy all the way! Zoya Akhtar is my favourite Indian filmmaker! Well done boys @FarOutAkhtar @ritesh_sid   get the gold statue home!!! So excited !! @aliaa08 @RanveerOfficial and the team!"

(Images: Twitter)