The Warrior

The Hindi-language film "The Warrior" was chosen by the British Academy of Film and Television to represent the UK in the "Best Foreign Language Film" category at the 2003 Oscars. The AMPAA took the highly unusual step of rejecting the movie because although the film had a British-born director (of Indian ancestry) and was co-produced by three British companies, the film did not qualify as British since "Hindi was not a language indigenous to the U.K." The British Academy was forced to submit its second choice, the Welsh-language, "Eldra". In an ironic twist, "The Warrior" went on to win "Best British Film" at the British Academy Awards the following year, although it lost "Best Non-English Film" to a film from Spain.

Although the film takes place in medieval India, smoking, unknown in the Old World before contact with the Americas and rare or absent across India before the British period (beginning circa 1600), is widespread. Further, cigarettes constitute most or all of the smoking shown in the film but were invented late in the 19th century. Prior to that, tobacco was smoked almost exclusively in pipes (cigars in the Caribbean).

Similarly, a basket of maize ears is overturned in one scene. Maize was developed by Meso-American peoples and not common in India until well after the beginning of the British period.

Referenced in OWV Updates: Christmas Multimedia Update 2015 (2015)