Oscar fever is here -- and how!

By Lakshmi Balakrishnan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24. Hollywood's biggest night is here. But the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles won't just be a place where some of the world's most beautiful faces and famous names will get together this Sunday night. When the drama begins to unfold at the 73rd Academy awards ceremony, there will be a great many people hooked to the show.

Nearer home, this year's Oscars have come minus the excitement that the nomination of Shekhar Kapoor and Manoj Night Shyamalan's Hollywood offerings had brought last year. Yet there will be no dearth of viewers catching up with the action over television on Monday morning. Delhi's theatre owners too are making sure they make the most of the Oscar fever -- by simply following the good old saying: ``If you can't beat them, join them''.

Delhi's only way of joining the Oscar party was perhaps by screening the films nominated for the awards. Doing so this month are Chanakya, Priya and PVR Anupam. Never mind if some of the Oscar favourites like Russell Crowe's ``Gladiator'' and Julia Roberts' ``Erin Brockovich'' had already been screened in the city. If one were to go simply by figures, then ``Gladiator'' might seem the clear Delhi favourite. Despite an earlier screening, the ongoing Oscar festival at PVR Anupam has had the film running to packed houses.

``Gladiator has done brilliant business, especially at the festival. Judging by the way it has performed here, it surely looks like a hot favourite to win the Oscars in Delhi,'' says Sanjay Walia of PVR Anupam. Of course Chow Yun Fat's ``Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon'' and Tom Hanks' ``Cast Away'' are tough contenders too.

Delhi's theatre owners acknowledge that even our National Film Awards fail to generate such excitement. The hype and hoopla surrounding the most coveted award ceremony in the world may be one reason, and the growing attraction for Hollywood movies another.

And while theatre owners think they are doing all they can to get the Oscar fever to Delhi, most cinemagoers don't seem too satisfied. ``Only five of the films nominated for the Oscars have been shown at the monthlong festival at PVR Anupam. It would have been better if they had come out with more. Also, most of the movies being shown are the ones that have already been screened at the same theatres,'' rues Kapil Gupta, a software engineer.

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