Chosen by the British Academy of Film and Television to represent the UK in the "Best Foreign Language Film" category at the 2003 Oscars only after the AMPAA took the highly unusual step of rejecting the UK's initial entry The Warrior (2001) because, although the latter 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."