"Water" is a Triumph, Oscar or No Oscar

Whether Deepa Mehta's film "Water" wins the Oscar for best foreign film or not, the fat that it exists is a triumph in itself.

Mehta started filming the movie in January 2000. After just two days of filming, her set was shut down by rioting Hindu nationalists.

Mehta's story of an 8-year-old widow that has been shunned by her society was very controversial, even from the beginning of the shoot. Local officials in India asked her to leave when he started the film. After five years and two more films, Mehta started filming again in Sri Lanka. In the 11 years t took her film to be made, Mehta had to deal with death threats and lawsuits. She also reconciled with a distant daughter.

It's not that winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar wouldn't be an honor, but it wouldn't be the craziest thing Meta has dealt with in the course of making the film. "I just feel that maybe if a film has gone through this type of journey, the payoff has been so generous," she has said. She describes "Water" as being "blessed."

"Water" has made close to $14 million in ticket sales worldwide. It has been sold in 57 countries, and 25 of those have released the film. On March 9^th, it will finally open in India.

"Water" benefited from a change in the Oscar rules. Now, a film can be nominated f it is in a language other than the one of its country's origin, as long as the country of origin exercised creative control. Mehta and the producer of "Water" are Canadian, so the film was Canada's official entry. Mehta said that India "would never have put me up."

Nancy Utley of Searchlight Pictures said that the film's back story helped to generate a strong word of mouth.

"Water" brought about an unexpected reunion between Mehta and her daughter, Devyani Saltzman. When Mehta and her husband were divorced, Saltzman was forced to choose between her mother and father for who got legal custody of her. Saltzman was 11 years old. The mother and daughter had been all but estranged ever since. Saltzman's recent graduation from Oxford was a catalyst for the reunion.