'Court' better than India's last few embarrassing Oscar entries: Irrfan

Actor Irrfan Khan, two of whose films earlier missed being India's official entry for the 88th Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film category, says Chaitanya Tamhane's Marathi film "Court" is a better choice than the last few "embarrassing" entries that the country sent to the Oscars.

"'Court' is a good film. I don't know about the other films. Unlike a few years back, the kind of films that were sent, they were embarrassing. This is better than them," Irrfan told IANS.

The acclaimed performer's "Paan Singh Tomar" and "The Lunchbox" were two films that were in the forefront of being chosen as India's Oscar entry, but ultimately "Barfi!" and "The Good Road" were selected by a jury appointed by the Film Federation of India.

Irrfan, who has done his fair share of work in international entertainment world, feels there should be a body "which should be really concerned about choosing the right film and sending it to a platform which is very important".

"We can't judge what it will do and how it will be perceived. There (at Oscars) they have big competition, so it depends on 'Court'...with which films it is competing. Also, there's the luck factor," he said.

"We can only try to send the best (film) we have made," added the actor, who was in the capital to promote his forthcoming film "Jazbaa".

Having starred in films like the Oscar-winning entertainers "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Life of Pi", Irrfan surely has an idea of how the foreign market percieves Indian cinema.

Asked if Hollywood is still looking for cliched Indian films, which have song and dance sequences, Irrfan said: "They are not looking for anything from Bollywood. They have a perception of Bollywood films having songs and dance sequences in it."

"But if we do films like 'The Lunchbox', 'Court' and 'Slumdog Millionaire', then the perception will change. Somewhere that perception is changing, but that's very little bit. Like 'Talvar', it's a film with no song and dance. It's doing very well."

Directed by Sanjay Gupta, "Jazbaa" is slated to release on Friday. The film also stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Jackie Shroff.