India’s Oscar dream may have ended on Friday when it was announced that the highly anticipated Visaaranai failed to make the cut, but it didn’t disappoint its director Vetrimaaran, who is proud of their efforts and considered it an honour to represent the country. 

“It was a great campaign and turned out to be an eye-opener for us. We met a lot of talented and important people from Hollywood. One of the most memorable moments was when legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog watched Visaaranai and appreciated our efforts. If not for Dhanush and Vinod Kumar (Producer and Executive Director of Wunderbar Films respectively), this wouldn’t have been possible at all,” Vetrimaaran told Deccan Chronicle. 

Asked if he was able to watch the other films that were selected, he said, “Unfortunately, I couldn’t, but I’m sure that those nine films are there by merit. I must thank those who stood by me when Visaaranai was selected as India’s entry. Not just my team, but also the audience for hailing our project. It is a complete honour and I am extremely happy to have represented India on this most prestigious platform.”

(Content provided by Digital Native)