‘Sarabjit’ in Oscar race, Randeep hopes film wins the award

Randeep Hooda and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer ‘Sarbjit’ has made it to the long list of films eligible for Best Picture in 2016 at the upcoming 89th Academy Awards. Randeep, who played the role of Sarabjit in the flick, is optimistic about its win.

The film, directed by Omung Kumar, is a biopic on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan and was sentenced to death. He was attacked by inmates at a prison in Lahore in April 2013 and died a few days later.

Randeep, whose performance as the title character was critically acclaimed, told IANS via email: "It feels great to have one's work appreciated by the Academy Awards, which, I feel, mostly recognises cinematic excellence. A lot of people had, at the time of release, deemed this particular performance Oscar-worthy and then one hears this."

He has high hopes from the movie.

"Not only that, I hope it goes on to win it. But as far as I know, there is a lot lobbying required to get to that point. As you can see, I'm not good at all at that," he added.

The 40-year-old actor says if the film makes it to the final list, he would like to attend the awards gala and would want to take a "few key people" in his life.

Randeep has congratulated the entire cast and crew of the film, which also stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Darshan Kumar.

(With IANS Inputs)