Film Federation of India selected Santosh Davakhar’s Gondhal as India’s official entry for the 2027 Oscars.
The Marathi film was chosen from a field of 33 submissions for the Best International Feature Film category.
It is set in rural Maharashtra and draws on the traditional Gondhal ritual and folk-performance tradition.
Santosh Davakhar’s Marathi film Gondhal is heading to the 2027 Oscars. It has been chosen as India’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category (formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film) at the 99th Academy Awards. The Film Federation of India (FFI) announced the selection on Friday (September 18), giving Marathi cinema a place in the country’s Oscar campaign this year.
Gondhal becomes India’s Oscar entry
The Film Federation of India (FFI)’s selection committee reviewed 33 titles for India’s entry to the 99th Academy Awards. The list spanned several Indian languages and also had one silent film.
- Hindi had 14 entries
- Marathi, Telugu and Gujarati had four submissions each
- Tamil had three submissions
- Malayalam and Nagamese had one entry each
- The field also included a silent film
Gondhal has left behind films such as Main Vaapas Aaunga, Border 2, Dhurandhar, Dug Dug, Haq, Balan The Boy, Deool Band 2 and Shape of Momo, among others, in the Oscar race.
The jury was chaired by P Sheshadri. Its members included Vijay Patkar, Hutu Kanodia, Shanti Kumar, Sandeep Parashar, Sanjay Patil, Sabu Joseph, Anil Thomas, Vivek Vaswani, Bijon Dasgupta, Haasan, Vasan and Tannishtha Chatterjee.
About Gondhal
Set in rural Maharashtra, Gondhal's story unfolds in one night. The Marathi thriller centres around the state’s Gondhal ritual and its folk-performance roots, bringing together music, dance, mythology and religious elements.
The story follows Suman, a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage to Anand, a wealthy man.
Suman falls for Saheba, a Gondhali performer, and begins planning to end her marriage. That move draws Anand’s obsessive cousin Sarjerao into a risky plot. What starts as an escape ends in murder, deception, desire and survival.
The film stars Ishita Deshmukh, Kishor Kadam, Yogesh Sohoni, Nishad Bhoir and Anuj Prabhu.
Festival recognition
The film had already made an impact on the festival circuit before its Oscar selection. At the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in 2025, Davakhar won the Silver Peacock for Best Director.
Marathi cinema Oscar history
Gondhal is now the fourth Marathi-language film to be chosen as India’s official Oscar entry.
The earlier Marathi films chosen were Shwaas in 2005, Harishchandrachi Factory in 2009 and Court in 2015.
India hasn't yet won an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Only three Indian submissions have secured nominations in the category: Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan.
