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"Ranbir Kapoor has said he did not expect Barfi! to be so appreciated by the public as it has been. It was announced this weekend that the Anurag Basu-directed film has been  selected to represent India in the &amp;#039;Best Foreign Language Film&amp;#039; category at the Oscars. Speaking to IANS, the 29-year-old actor said: &amp;quot;It feels great, but the greater feeling is that the audience is liking the film and it&amp;#039;s doing great at the box office.  &amp;quot;It has reached people&amp;#039;s hearts. The love that the film has got and the collections show this. We really didn&amp;#039;t expect it to reach that far.&amp;quot; Barfi! was selected by the Film Federation of India (FFI) as India&amp;#039;s official entry to the Oscars from a shortlist of 19 films that included The Dirty Picture, Kahaani and Paan Singh Tomar. To date only three Bollywood films have been nominated in the &amp;#039;Best Foreign Film&amp;#039; category, namely Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001).      Kapoor, who has received widespread public and critical acclaim for his touching portrayal of a deaf-mute boy and his search for lasting love, said he is hopeful for the film&amp;#039;s success.  &amp;quot;We are not nominated yet. Once we do, the feeling will come. We have a lot of faith and hope from the film.&amp;quot; The movie, which has so far amassed nearly Rs 70 crore worldwide, is said to have experienced an unprecedented daily rise in viewing figures as a result of positive word of mouth, prompting trade analysts to predict it will join the exclusive &amp;#039;100 crore club&amp;#039;.  The Rockstar actor responded to such suggestions by saying: &amp;quot;I want to cross 500 crore, everyone crosses 100 crore.&amp;quot; Speaking to PTI, Anurag Basu described the official selection of Barfi! as the &amp;quot;icing on the cake&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;We had not expected this kind of response to it - from Oscar nomination to box office collections to critical acclaim,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;All we knew is that we are making a special and a good film. I am numb, don&amp;#039;t know how to react. I feel blessed. I wanted to take the risk.  &amp;quot;The reason why I did this film is because I was given an opportunity to tell a story without dialogues, through visual medium with the help of camera. I was never shy in making it. I wanted to do it.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/bollywood/news/a407737/ranbir-kapoor-barfi-has-reached-peoples-hearts/>