By Manissha Despaande, Bollywood Trade News Network

While industry members continue to voice their reservations about the selection of PAHELI as the official Indian entry for the Oscars, producer Pravesh Sippy who had last produced the critically acclaimed DAAYRA with Amol Palekar, has an interesting observation. "I am surprised like most other people are at the choice of PAHELI but more than being surprised I am convinced that it takes only a big name to carry your film to where PAHELI stands today. Honestly speaking, PAHELI is not even a patch of Amol Palekar's DAAYRA which I produced eight years ago. The latter even featured in the list of the world's ten best-made feature films in Time Magazine, besides being acclaimed at all the festivals but it died an inconsequential death in India. Probably it would have had a better chance if it were being produced by reckoned name like Shah Rukh," Pravesh says.

Well Pravesh Sippy has moved on in life ever since working on various projects in different capacities. A few months ago he quit as the creative head of Popcorn and got back to producing films once again in collaboration with an American company. Pravesh has now taken over as the C.O.O of W.S.G. Pictures and has already started work on two projects for the banner, the Urmila starrer CHAMKI directed by Shyam Benegal and the Pankaj Kapur starrer, DHARAM, directed by Bhavana Talwar, ex-assistant to Sanjay Leela Bhansali. There are three other films in the offing according to Pravesh and all of them are being made for the Indian and international market. Pravesh however refuses to make any tall claims about his productions yet. "Our policy is to keep a low profile about our productions until they actually hit the market. We want the films to speak for themselves," he says.