Director Vetri Maaran on the country’s constant hope for glory at the Academy Awards In 2017, filmmaker Vetri Maaran’s Visaranai put up a strong (though unsuccessful) fight to find a footing in the Oscars run. This year, Jallikattu did the same, but couldn’t make the final cut (or get as far as Visaranai did). What are we getting wrong? Vetri Maaran weighs in. Why do producers spend a lot of money sending a film to the Oscars if it does not have a fighting chance of winning? The reputation the Academy Awards has garnered over the course of these eight decades is so imposing that every film enthusiast wants the film he likes to win an Oscar. A few days ago, I got a message from an acquaintance saying if