Vidhu Vinod Chopra attended Oscars in his night suit, scolded Jane Fonda for causing disturbance at the ceremony

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At the venue, Vinod Chopra recalled being sat next to a woman who kept fidgeting. “Someone had told us that we are all nominees, and that we shouldn’t move around too much for the cameras. I sat still, because I wanted to be photographed, and I was sure I was going to win. But the woman next to me wouldn’t stop moving. I told her, ‘They’ve told us to not move, please sit down’. She apologised. Later, they called out Jane Fonda’s name as the winner, and the lady got up. That’s when I realised that she was Jane Fonda. When she returned, I apologised to her and said that I hadn’t recognised her. She said, ‘I know, but what you said was right’.”

Vinod Chopra also recalled not having the courage to walk up to The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, even though he was just five feet away. But his producer, who had had a few drinks, recognised that Vinod was feeling nervous about approaching Coppola, and went over and tapped the filmmaker on the shoulder. “My director is nominated,” he said, and Coppola proceeded to have a pleasant conversation with Vinod, and even invited him over to his studio.

Vinod Chopra most recently directed the film 12th Fail, which emerged as a sleeper hit at the end of 2023. Starring Vikrant Massey, 12th Fail was the filmmaker’s first release in four years.