Why was The Good Road chosen as India's official entry for the Oscars instead of The Lunchbox?

I have seen "The Good Road" and I really laughed. The movie is utterly slow full of pathetic and amateur performances. I wonder who and why someone thought of nominating it as India's entry..It puts us in shame..

Hi Alok , Im not sure but i sense spite in your question for people who argues and had opposing views about the movie  ,  none the less here is the deal Q1 -  and Q3 of yours are Rhetoric in nature  from Filmmakers point of view. If any one knew the fixed formula ( if it all it exists)  for  getting an entry to oscars,  it would be 100 cr debate all over. ( ie. Make Movie to  make 100 Cr - Debangg, Chennao Express  et all...   or Make a movie that is so good  that it  makes 100 cr :  Bhaag Milkha, 3 Idiots et all  ) .  Personally I feel  Slumdog was of that category.  It was a movie which excelled it all its departments in isolation . Editing, Capturing the Indian Mileu , Sound Editing, most importantly Marketing and Promotion , . But it was not an eg of Great Storytelling, in totality I did not like the movie.   It won the most oscars for that year.    Q2)  Being in contention for being Official Entry to oscars itself speaks for a movie's  its greatness. The other film getting selected  does not takeaway any goodness from this film.    Even if External Recognition is considered as any sort of benchmark .....the film has  won numerous awards where it was pitted against best of the best across the globe.  I say its a great feat for a movie which was Indi to begin with. ( laterpicked up by studios for distribution) .   I reiterate, a movie not winning an award and not getting selected for an award and in this case something  as big as Oscars , cannot be any indication of how great it is .and in some cases  how un-great it is.

Well.. To be honest I havent seen 'The good Road' but got a chance to watch 'LunchBox'. Though it is not the official entry for Oscars but undoubtedly it is an Oscar Material (Going by the previous years' trend). The USP of the movie is its Simplicity and Simplicity is Supreme. Each and every character is hand crafted and protagonist in their own way. Each every frame of the movie is Patently Indianised. Truly, An Indian Oscar Material Movie.