This Hindi film featuring Shahana Goswami has been selected as UK's official entry for Oscars 2025

Headlined by Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar, the Hindi film Santosh has been selected by United Kingdom as its official entry for the Best International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards, or the Oscars 2025. The highly acclaimed police procedural drama is directed by Sandhya Suri.

Santosh had its world premiere at the Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and received a lot of critical acclaim. Its synopsis reads, "In rural Northern India, newly widowed Santosh inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a young girl’s murder."

Made in Hindi language, Santosh has been selected by United Kingdom because of its wide release there and it is backed by British producers. The Shahana Goswami-starrer is bankrolled by Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay, and Alan McAlex, while its executive producers are Ama Ampadu, Eva Yates, Diarmid Scrimshaw, Lucia Haslauer, and Martin Gerhard. Good Chaos, Razor Film Produktion, Haut et Court, BBC Film, and BFI are the co-producers. The Hindi film marks the directorial feature debut of British Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri. She has previously made documentaries I for India in 2005 and Around India with a Movie Camera in 2018. 

It will be interesting to see Santosh's journey at the Oscars 2025 because it was the United Kingdom's entry - The Zone of Interest  that won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards earlier this year in March 2024. The Jonathan Glazer directorial also picked up the Oscar for Best Sound from its five nominations, with the other three being for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Earlier this week, Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies was announed as India's official entry for Oscars 2025. A light-hearted satire on patriarchy, the social comedy drama features Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel, Sparsh Shrivastav, Ravi Kishan, and Chhaya Kadam in the leading roles. It is produced by Rao's Kindling Productions, Aamir Khan Productions, and Jio Studios. 

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