'DAM999' director hopeful about the Oscars

Kochi: With the final Oscar nominations just a day away from being announced in Los Angeles, marine engineer-turned-filmmaker Sohan Roy, whose project 'DAM 999' stands a chance to feature in the list, has his fingers crossed Monday.

The filmmaker hopes for the best, and believes destiny depends on Karma.

"We have done our duties well to get it (the movie) qualified. I used to dream a lot about Oscar. Now it's our dream... A dream of 1.2 billion (people)... Let's all dream together. Hope the destiny will make that dream true," Roy told IANS.

The final nominations for the 84th Academy Awards will be announced at the Hollywood's Samuel Goldwyn Theater Tuesday.

Roy's 'DAM 999' is India's only hope at the Oscars this year. The $10 million film tells the tale of a cracking dam built during colonial rule and revolves around nine characters and their emotions. The lives of all the nine characters revolve around the central edifice -- the pressure-mounted dam.

The movie has made it to the Oscars not through the foreign movie category, but as a contender against international biggies like 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2', 'Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides', 'Thor', 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' to name a few among the other nominees for this year's Best Picture Oscar run.

Three of its songs -- 'Dakkanaga Dugu Dugu', 'DAM999 Theme Song' and 'Mujhe Chhod Ke' -- were among the 39 shortlisted for nominations in the Original Song category, and the movie is also in the race for a nomination in the Original Score category.

The film was released in the last week of December 2011, across the country barring Tamil Nadu, which banned the film as the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala reached a crescendo over the Mullaperiyar Dam, which is 115 years old and has started to leak.

The final Oscar awards presentation ceremony will take place on February 26 at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.####The final nominations for the 84th Academy Awards will be announced at the Hollywood’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Tuesday.