Oscars 2025: Sandhya Suri’s Hindi crime drama Santosh selected by UK as its official entry

Sandhya Suri’s Hindi crime drama Santosh has been selected as the UK’s official entry for the 97th Academy Awards. The film, which stars Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar in lead roles, is a police procedural set in rural India and focuses on the story of a widow who becomes a police constable and investigates the murder of a young girl from a marginalized community.

Just days after Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies was announced as India’s entry for the Oscars 2025, Santosh has emerged as another Hindi-language film in the race. This marks a significant moment for Santosh, which was chosen by BAFTA to represent the UK in the Best International Feature Film category at the prestigious awards. This selection follows the UK’s recent win in this category with Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest at last year’s Oscars, adding a layer of expectation for the team behind Santosh.

To qualify for the International Feature Film category, the movie needed to be a non-English language film and released in theaters outside of the U.S. between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. Santosh met these criteria after its theatrical release in the UK, one of the main co-producing countries. The film also had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It marks Sandhya Suri’s first feature film as a director, though she is well-known for her documentaries I for India and Around India with a Movie Camera.

Set in northern India, Santosh tells the gripping story of a recently widowed woman who takes over her late husband’s job as a police constable. When a lower-caste teenage girl is brutally murdered, Santosh is drawn into the investigation by a sharp and determined female inspector. Alongside Goswami and Rajwar, the film features a strong supporting cast, including Sanjay Bishnoi, Kushal Dubey, Nawal Shukla, and Pratibha Awasthi.

For those curious about how a Hindi film qualified as the UK’s submission, Santosh is an international co-production involving the UK, India, Germany, and France. It had a significant release in the UK, making it eligible for selection. The film is produced by Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay, and Alan McAlex, with executive producers Ama Ampadu, Eva Yates, Diarmid Scrimshaw, Lucia Haslauer, and Martin Gerhard.

The production of Santosh was backed by several international companies, including Good Chaos, Razor Film Produktion, Haut et Court, BBC Film, and the BFI. The film’s haunting score was composed by Luisa Gerstein, with Lennert Hillege handling cinematography and Maxime Pozzi-Garcia managing the editing.

With its powerful narrative and international backing, Santosh enters the Oscars race with high hopes, continuing the momentum for Hindi-language films on the global stage.