Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra has been receiving acclaim from the earliest days of his career. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1979, for his 1978 documentary short, An Encounter with Faces. But he had no money to attend the prestigious awards ceremony in the US. Nor did he have a passport and a visa. At the time, the then-I&B Minister LK Advani, with whom Chopra once fought over Rs 4000, came to his aid. In a recent interview, Chopra recalled what happened in 1979, when he was informed about his nomination at the Oscars. The filmmaker first broke the news to his father, who couldn't understand his son's excitement since he was not getting any money for it. "I was nominated at the Oscars in 1979. I excitedly told my father about it. He also got happy and hugged me. Then he asked me, 'How much money will you get?' I told him this was not about money. So, he asked, 'Then why are you happy?'" Chopra narrated to Lallantop. He further shared that he had no resources to attend the awards ceremony, and this is when he went to Delhi to meet the then-Information and Broadcast Minister LK Advani. Chopra shared, "When I was nominated for the Oscar, I didn't have a ticket, a passport or a visa. So, I couldn't go for it. I went to Delhi and met Advani ji. He gave me an Air India ticket and $20 per day expenditure. He couldn't get me a visa, but he got me a passport in a couple of days for six months without police verification." The next hurdle was getting a US visa. So, Chopra went to the Mumbai office for a US visa, but on a Saturday. "I reached Mumbai on Saturday for the visa, and Oscars were on Monday. I was shouting at the security guard there and he was talking in English. He was like, 'No, no, you come Monday'. I said, 'What are you doing here? Who are you?' I was shouting at the top of my voice. So, an American, a decent-looking man, lean, and dressed in a white shirt, stepped out and asked me what happened. I told him, 'Sir, Monday, there is the Oscars,'" shared the Parinda director. The man wondered what Chopra has to do with the Oscars. So, the filmmaker told him that he was a nominee. "Can you prove it?" the man asked, as Chopra pulled out newspaper clippings to prove that he was not lying. Despite being an off day, the 'gentleman' invited Chopra inside and after an hour or so, he gave him a single-entry visa for three months. "So, with that Visa and Advani ji's ticket, I attended the Oscars," Chopra said. He also shared that since he didn't have money to buy a proper suit for the ceremony, he attended it in a white kurta-pyjama. "I didn't have money to buy a suit. They suggested I rent a tuxedo, but I didn't have money for that as well. So, they said wear your national dress. I was sitting at the Oscars in a white, khadi kurta-pyjama," an amused Chopra concluded.
