The Gujarati film Chhello Show (Last Film Show), chosen in 2022 by the Film Federation of India (FFI), will represent India in the 2023 Academy Awards. The movie has been selected for the category of International Feature Film. Director Pan Nalin and star Bhavin Rabari attended a special screening of the film that Priyanka Chopra presented in Los Angeles for the Oscars 2023 campaign.
Producer David Dubinsky wrote, sharing the pictures and the clip on social media,“With Priyanka Chopra, actress, model, and producer (wife of Nick Jonas) at the movie screening and reception of Last Film Show, a coming of age drama of a boy from a remote village in India who discovers the joys of the movie theater just as digital projection changes the game. It is India’s submission to the Academy Awards and was just shortlisted in Best International feature film category. Available on Netflix.”
Bhavin Rabari, Vikas Bata, Richa Meena, Bhavesh Shrimali, Dipen Raval, and Rahul Koli are the movie’s stars. The story is set against the backdrop of India’s cinemas going through a significant conversion from celluloid to digital, where hundreds of single-screen theatres are either completely gone or are in disrepair. In 2021, the movie made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. At the 66th Valladolid International Film Festival in 2021, it also took home the Golden Spike.
The most recent Indian films to place in the top five in the Best International Feature category are Lagaan and Mother India (1958, 1989, and 1988, respectively) (2001).
Priyanka Chopra’s upcoming projects include the Hollywood movies Love Again and Ending Things. She also owns Citadel, a series by the Russo Brothers. She will shortly start filming for her upcoming Bollywood movie, Jee Le Zaraa. The upcoming drama, directed by Farhan Akhtar, also has Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles.