Marathi film Gondhal is India’s official entry for the 2027 Oscars

The Film Federation of India named the Marathi film Gondhal as India’s official submission for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards. Jury chair P. Seshadri announced the choice in Mumbai on 18 September after the panel watched 33 films in ten days.

The field included 14 Hindi titles, four Marathi, four Telugu, four Gujarati, three Tamil, one Malayalam, one Nagamese and one silent film. Seshadri said Angh and Ikkis sat with Gondhal in the final three. Among the titles that did not make that last cut were Dhurandhar, Hanuman Ansh, Main Vaapas Aaunga, Border 2 and Bison Kaalamaadan.

The Academy’s 15-film shortlist is due on 15 December. Nominations follow on 21 January 2027. The ceremony is scheduled for 14 March 2027 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The film and the ritual it uses

Santosh Davakhar wrote and directed Gondhal. It is his first feature. He also works as a social activist. The film takes its title from the all-night Maharashtrian ritual of music, drumming and dance performed as an offering. The plot runs through one such night in rural Maharashtra and follows Suman, played by Ishita Deshmukh, whose marriage to Anand comes apart as old ties, jealousy and a plan to kill and leave come into the open.

Kishor Kadam, Yogesh Sohoni, Nishad Bhoir, Anuj Prabhu, Suresh Vishwakarma and Vitthal Kale are in the cast. Ilaiyaraaja wrote the score. Amalendu Chaudhary shot the film. Ashish Mhatre edited it. The running time is about two hours. It opened in theatres on 14 November 2025 after a world premiere in the Indian Panorama at the 56th International Film Festival of India in Goa, where Davakhar won the Silver Peacock for Best Director. Further prizes followed at Bengaluru, Pune and the Third Eye Asian International Film Festival.

Seshadri’s public remarks stayed close to process. The jury watched 33 films. Many were good. The official entry is Gondhal. That dryness is useful. It treats a language cinema choice as a selection, not a slogan about national diversity.

The line this continues, and the one it does not

Gondhal is the fourth Marathi film India has sent to the Oscars, after Shwaas (2005), Harishchandrachi Factory (2009) and Court (2015). Last year the country sent Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, which did not reach the final five. A Marathi film that already has an IFFI director prize now carries the file that Homebound held.

The information a reader does not get from a victory headline is the shape of the shortlist fight inside the room. Seshadri named Angh and Ikkis. He did not describe the argument. He did say the ten-day viewing included a debate. That is the closest the announcement came to admitting that 33 films produced more than one plausible ambassador.

What happens next is mechanical. The film must be submitted in the Academy’s format, subtitled, and then survive a shortlist of 15. Davakhar’s advantage is a festival prize and a plot that is specific to a night ritual rather than a generic social drama. His obstacle is the same one every Indian submission faces: the international branch has to want this particular rural night more than it wants the other 14 films that will sit beside it in December.