Yet again the choice of an ‘obscure’ film, Liar’s Dice, as compared to the more popular choices for the official Indian entry to the Academy awards, has rankled a few filmmakers. A 12-member jury, headed by eminent filmmaker T Hariharan, chose this movie out of 30 entries in multiple languages.

The Film Federation of India has been absolutely secretive about its selection procedure and the names of the members of the jury. For a while now, the filmmakers have been talking in hushed tones about their displeasure of not being kept in the loop about why a particular film is chosen over others. But it was only last year that their ire came out in the open when Anurag Kashyap and Ritesh Batra, who were rooting for their film The Lunchbox, openly declared their objection to the Federation selecting The Good Road instead. This year, it’s Hansal Mehta, the director of Shahid and Nilesh Navalakha, the producer of Marathi film Fandry, who have taken to social media to express their anger over the non-transparency. Both Shahid and Fandry were festival favourites, and were looked at as strong contenders for the official entry.