MUMBAI: PVR Cinemas has acquired the rights of director Ashvin Kumar’s 86-minute film, The Forest.

A tale of a man-eating leopard set in the jungles of north India, The Forest was earlier premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose in February 2009 and was also show at the Cannes Market in 2009.

The writer-director won an Oscar nomination in 2004 for Little Terrorist. The film has been part of official selections to over 130 film festivals including the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) Los Angeles.

His documentary Inshallah Football is about a Kashmiri boy’s dreams to play football and how his father’s past jeopardises his dreams. With the film, he also became the first Indian to be nominated at the European Film Academy for the 15-minute short film that 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 a terrorist by security forces.

Kumar, son of well-known designer Ritu Kumar, started his filmmaking journey with Road to Ladakh and followed it up with films like Dazed in Doon and Inshallah Kashmir: Living Terror.