What Lagaan director Ashutosh Gowariker was told by Western festival director reluctant to screen Aamir Khan film: ‘Too long, too commercial, and it has cricket’

The filmmaker recalled what the festival director told him about the film: “The film is too long, three hours 42 minutes. We cannot have it here. It’s got songs, it’s very commercial, it’s got cricket. Audiences in Locarno only understand football. Your film cannot be shown.” Ashutosh urged the festival director to sample just three scenes from the film, and eventually, she agreed to give it a slot. Lagaan was screened before thousands of people at the festival’s open air venue, with a five-storey screen.

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“The film was a huge success there, in a screening with French, Germans, Italians… They were dancing in the aisles, they were cheering for Bhuvan, they didn’t understand cricket but the film captured their emotions,” he said, adding that after the screening, the festival director hugged him, and said that she was glad that she took a ‘gamble’ on the film.

Ashutosh said that later, during Lagaan’s Oscar campaign, the Locarno honour became a ‘calling card’ for them. “Lagaan’s audience award at Locarno was our biggest support at the Oscars. The Academy didn’t know who these two boys from India are. But our calling card was that the film has won the audience award at Locarno. So, it made people sit up and at least sample the film,” he said. Lagaan remains the last Indian film to earn a nomination in the category formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film, although several Indian films have since been honoured with nominations and awards at the Oscars.