Daily Times

Director and screenwriter Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Gully Boy’ could not make it to the final Oscar nomination list for the Best International Feature Film category but the filmmaker looks at the entire campaign with gratitude rather than disappointment.

Starring Ranveer Singh in the role of a budding street rapper, the movie failed to make the cut in the top-10 movies that will advance to the next round of voting at the 92nd Academy Awards. Zoya Akhtar said she has learned a lot during the promotional campaign for the film.

“There was a huge learning. It was exciting because I have got many, many good things out of it. I’m not going to deny that a lot of good things have happened to me. There are no complaints, only gratitude,” Akhtar told media on the film’s campaign.

The filmmaker said she is not disheartened by the result as she has learnt to take both happiness and disappointment in her stride.

‘There was a huge learning. It was exciting because I have got many, many good things out of it. I’m not going to deny that a lot of good things have happened to me. There are no complaints, only gratitude,’ Akhtar told media on the film’s campaign

“This has encouraged me to do what I do. We are born and bred in this business, you have ups and you have downs. You cannot let the ups go to your head or the downs go to your heart. Because I’m here to stay.

“I’m here to make movies. My job is to take every experience and get better with it. I have to do that; I have no choice. My first film didn’t do well, doesn’t mean I’m going to cry. I’m just going to make a better film, then another better one and so on,” she added.

Zoya has come on board for Ghost Stories, a horror anthology directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar. The film features an ensemble cast of Mrunal Thakur, Avinash Tiwary, Janhvi Kapoor, Raghuvir Yadav, Sobhita Dhulipala, Vijay Varma and Pavail Gulati. ‘Ghost Stories’ will stream on Netflix from Wednesday.