Oscar 2027: Santosh Davkhar’s film ‘Gondhal’ has been selected as India’s official entry for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category at Oscars 2027 i.e. the 99th Academy Awards. This is a big achievement for Marathi cinema at the international level. Film Federation of India (FFI) has announced this selection on Friday.
Best International Feature Film Category
Written and directed by Santosh Dawkhar, the film is set in rural Maharashtra and its story revolves around a night of traditional rituals involving a newly married couple. Chairman of the selection committee P. Seshadri said that the film has been selected as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards from a list of 33 films.
33 movies from different languages
Seshadri said in a press conference here that this year we had four Marathi films, 14 Hindi and other films. All the films were good and this is a happy moment for Indian cinema and Marathi cinema. This time the official entry is ‘Gondhal’.
He said that we watched 33 films of different languages in the last ten days. We were also discussing many other good films. Apart from the film ‘Gondhal’, ‘Aang’ and ‘Ikkis’ were in the list of top three films.
world premiere of the film
The world premiere of ‘Gondhal’ was held at the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa in 2025. Dawkhar received the ‘Silver Peacock’ award for Best Director in this festival. Set against the backdrop of the midnight celebration of the traditional Gondhal dance in rural Maharashtra, the film is the story of a woman named Suman, who, feeling suffocated by a marriage against her will, conspires with her lover to commit murder and elope.
List of other films
Actress Ishita Deshmukh has played the lead role in the film. Kishore Kadam, Yogesh Sohani, Nishad Bhoir and Anuj Prabhu have also played roles in it. Veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja has composed the music of the film. The list of 33 films sent to FFI also included Yami Gautam’s “Haq”, Aditya Dhar-directed “Dhurandhar” and “Dhurandhar: The Revenge”, “Hanuman Ansh”, Sunny Deol starrer “Border 2”, Imtiaz Ali’s “Main Wapas Aaunga”, Ram Charan’s “Peddi” and Farhan Akhtar’s “120 Bahadur”.
many strong films
Sheshadri said the selection process was challenging as the list included many strong films, including Aditya Dhar’s blockbuster “Dhurandhar”. He said that we also had many films from other parts of India, but there are some rules and criteria for sending films for Oscars. Actually, the film should represent Indian culture and Indian values.
fourth marathi film
The film ‘Gondhal’ is the fourth Marathi film to be selected for Oscar. Earlier, ‘Court’ (2015), ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ (2009) and “Shwaas” (2005) were selected. Not only this, but this film has also got a rating of 8.9 out of 10 on IMDb. The 99th Oscar Awards ceremony will be organized on March 14 next year.