'Zinda Bhaag' becomes Pakistan's first official entry to Oscars in 50 yrs

The Pakistani academy Selection Committee has chosen 'Zinda Bhaag' as their first film submission in over 5 decades for Oscar consideration in the 'Foreign Language Film Award' category at the 86th Academy Awards.

The Lahore-set comedy, which is directed by Farjad Nabi and Meenu Gaur, features Naseeruddin Shah and many Indian technicians.

Gaur said that she was excited with the news as it was unexpected.

"Well we are extremely excited as the news came out of the blue and we were not expecting. It's exciting for our film and for Pakistani Cinema in general because one feels that from now onwards there will be more and more focus and attention on cinema which is great for the industry," Gaur said.

Filmmaker Nabi described the film as an amalgamation of real life stories of Pakistani youngsters.

"This film has real life stories of people around us. They were so cinematic that this is how we cross border. They left dogs on me, they started firing on me and then I reached such and such country and then how I made a life out of it. So we use to find all these stories amazing. And when this project came along we started digging that why do these young man take risk and the more we dug deep the more complex and interesting it became and just came together as a script," Nabi said.

'Zinda Bhaag,' which has already released in Pakistan, is expected to release in India shortly.