Rang De Basanti', Indian's official entry to the Oscars in the Foreign Film category, will also be competing in seven other mainline categories at the prestigious awards, the producer of the film Ronnie Screwvala said.

'Rang de Basanti', chosen by the Film Federation of India on Monday as India's nominee to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, will now also compete in seven other categories including Best Film, Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Sound Design at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, CEO of UTV Ronnie Screwvala told here.

''There is only one official entry per country in the coveted foreign language film category besides that we have also applied in 7 Mainline Categories,'' Ronnie Screwvala said.

Talking about the decision to send the film in seven other mainline categories, besides the Best foreign Film category, Mr Screwvala said, the day Rang De Basanti was selected as india's entry for the Best Foreign Film category, we also had decided to send the film in other categories.

For, we have all along felt that besides a brilliant story and screenplay, Rang De Basanti has a world class production facilities be it in its cinematography, sound design or art direction.

''And, since, promoting the film in the Best Film Category would in any case require a huge amount of effort and expenditure to raise awareness for the film among the academy members, it made sense to send the film in several mainline categories as well.'' He, however, said their focus would remain on getting an award in the Best foreign language category at the Oscars.

''Our main focus would, however, remain on trying to secure the Best foreign Language Film Oscar for the film. As for competing in other mainline categories, we will try to give it our best shot,'' Mr Screwvala said.

The news of 'Rang De Basanti' competing for eight categories comes close on the heels of the producers of 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' deciding to send the film to the Oscars as an independent entry.

Asked about recent reports of Lage Raho Munnabhai also sending in an application to the Oscars, Mr Screwvala said, ''firstly, in the Foreign Language Category no other film can apply from India.

Therefore, Rang De Basanti will not be competing with any other Indian film. Secondly, it is true that any film can apply in the mainline Category but then you are up against all the Hollywood Majors, where we too have applications in 7 such categories''.