MUMBAI: Director Ashvin Kumar’s mainstream ecologic thriller The Forest is set to release on 4 May.

The Forest, a thriller with an ecological message, is a chilling tale of a man-eating leopard set in the jungles of North India.

The Forest is the third release under PVR Cinema’s Director’s Rare series. Its star cast includes the likes of Javed Jafferi, Nandana Sen, Ankur Vikal and Salim Ali Zaidi.

Incidentally, Ashwin is the youngest Indian writer-director with an Academy Award Oscar nomination for Little Terrorist and National Award winning director for Inshallah Football.

With his Oscar nomination, the director joins the select list of Indians at the Oscars like Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Shekhar Kapur, Resul Pookutty, Bhanu Athaiya and AR Rahman. He is the only Indian to ever be nominated into the short film category.

The film had early premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose in February 2009 and had its market premiere at Cannes Market ‘09. It was also a part of the official competition of Montreal International Film Festival, Canada and Sitges International Film Festival, Spain.