Ashwin Kumar, whose 15-minute film Little Terrorist has been nominated for the Oscars this year in the Short Film category, has said his film is about defining the India-Pakistan conflict post 9/11.

"After 9/11, there is a sense of branding people guilty before trial," tells Kumar. "I wanted to reflect the reality of the world after 9/11 as I understand it and through the experience of India and Pakistan. This is what I bring out in the film."

The film traces the journey of a young Pakistani boy who accidentally crosses the border between India and Pakistan in pursuit of his cricket ball and is instantly branded as a terrorist by security forces.

"They don't even think before they brand him a terrorist," said Kumar. "This is the sort of insensitivity that prevails."

Kumar is now deciding on when to go to Los Angeles to promote the film, made with a shoestring budget of 15,000 pounds, before the actual award ceremony.

"I'm not sure whether we need to hire a publicist. I don't think short films need that but if we do, then we'll hire one," said Kumar, who got the crew for the film by posting an ad on the Internet.

"The ad said that I could pay people, couldn't pay for airfare but this was the script and if people wanted they could come and work on the film.

Around 15 people turned up.

"These were people I didn't know but people who really liked the script and turned up amid the sand dunes of Rajasthan for the shooting," said Kumar, who finished shooting in five days.

The film he said was his reaction to the way India and Pakistan worked with each other, and the way the world looked at their conflict.

"We have been living with conflict and terrorism for the last decade but America just woke up to terrorism, it seemed, after 9/11," said Kumar, who has been approached by television channels in Sweden and Australia for rights to screen the film.

Kumar's next film would be a full-length feature tentatively called The Forest and would star Irrfan Khan.

"It has a very strong conservation message. I've been going to forests since I was a child and wanted to make a film about how urban people react to nature," said Kumar, whose new film has a budget of $1.6 million.

On the cards is also a remake of Road To Ladakh, his first film about strangers who meet during a journey to the Himalayan heights of Ladakh. This film has a budget of $4 million and again stars Irrfan Khan.

Kumar also said he would be happy to participate in any peace initiative between India and Pakistan. "If I'm called upon, I shall do everything I can."