A very shocking revelation has come to light regarding director Aditya Dhar's spy-action drama film 'Dhurandhar', which has broken all the box office records in the history of Indian cinema. This mega-blockbuster film, which has set new records of unprecedented earnings both domestically and internationally since its release and made a huge gross business of more than Rs 1350 crore in its first part, was not selected as India's official entry for the 99th Academy Awards (Oscars 2027). A sensitive Marathi film 'Gondhal' defeated this commercial giant in the race to be selected to represent the country at the world's most prestigious film platform. The decision sparked a heated debate on social media between Ranveer Singh fans and mainstream cinema lovers. Now, breaking his silence on this entire issue for the first time, Vivek Vaswani, chief jury member of the official selection board of the Film Federation of India (FFI), has completely made public the inside details of the selection process, the internal differences of the jury and the philosophical basis behind the final decision.
Veteran film actor-producer Vivek Vaswani, a key member of the jury of the Film Federation of India, told in an exclusive interview with NDTV India that the huge earnings of a film or its huge budget are not the primary criteria before the selection committee. Vaswani bluntly explained that some individual members of the jury liked the film's technical aspects, high level action choreography and cinematography, but as an international competitive work the majority of the committee did not consider it suitable for the Oscars stage. He said that after a long discussion in the committee, it became clear that a heavy and action-oriented film like Dhurandhar does not meet the artistic and discursive standards of Oscar's 'International Feature Film' category.
Vivek Vaswani, while sharing the selection committee's internal voting data, revealed that out of the 14-member prestigious jury panel, only four members had voted in favor of 'Dhurandhar'. The remaining 10 members clearly believed that the film sent by India to the Western Academy should have a deep impression of the country's soil, grassroots struggle and fundamental cultural consciousness, and not formulas made on the lines of Western action films. According to Vaswani, the jury was looking for a cinematic work that could represent the real social fabric, traditions and inner human sensibilities of India at the Oscars 2027. Since Dhurandhar did not satisfy the majority of the jury's expectations of this cultural touchstone and deep emotional discourse, it was rejected despite huge commercial success.
The journey to select India's official entry for the Academy Awards 2027 was an extremely complex and competitive one. This time, a total of 33 excellent films from different languages across the country were sent before the selection committee, out of which 14 Hindi films, 4 Marathi, 4 Gujarati and 4 Tamil films, apart from Malayalam, Nepali and a silent film were also in contention. After intensive screening and detailed deliberations, the jury shortlisted the final three films which included the Marathi thriller 'Gondhal', the arthouse film 'Aang' and renowned director Imtiaz Ali's acclaimed masterpiece 'Main Vapsar Aaunga'. After hours of intellectual debate between the top three contenders, the jury unanimously gave its final nod to the Marathi film 'Gondhal' as the film was most capable of taking the international jury directly to the inner reality of India through its unique local narrative, deep cultural references and excellent direction.
Even though 'Dhurandhar' may have missed out on getting an official entry due to the strict and specific standards of the Oscars, the stature of this film in the history of the box office is no less than a miracle. While the first part of this spy-franchise, under the skilled direction of Aditya Dhar and Ranveer Singh's career-best performance, did a strong business of Rs 1350 crore worldwide, its second part, released in the year 2026, touched a new peak of earning more than Rs 1850 crore worldwide, breaking all the old records of the cinematic world. Combining both the parts, this historic franchise has established the influence of the Indian film industry across the world with a total business of over Rs 3000 crore at the global box office. Though it fell behind the sleeper hit of the year 'Hanuman Ansh' in terms of profit percentage, but in terms of overall gross revenue and grandeur, 'Dhurandhar' remains the biggest and unforgettable milestone of Indian cinema of 2025-2026.