The British Academy has selected British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s critically acclaimed thriller Santosh as the UK’s official entry to Oscars 2025 in the International Feature Film category. The Hindi-language film features Indian actors Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar in key roles. 

Earlier this year, Santosh was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. The film enters the race with certain pressure as last year the UK marked its first win in the International feature film category at Oscars as Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest was declared the winner in the category. 

Santosh is the directorial feature debut of British Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri. She has earlier made documentaries like I for India (2005) and Around India with a Movie Camera (2018). 

Santosh is set in rural northern India, where newly-widowed Santosh inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable. When an underage girl from one of India’s so-called “lower castes” is murdered, Santosh gets involved in the investigation reporting to a charismatic feminist inspector.

Written and directed by Suri, Santosh stars Shahana Goswami in the titular role, alongside Sunita Rajwar.

The film has been produced by James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay, Mike Goodridge, and Alan McAlex. It has been co-financed by Good Chaos, Razor Film Produktion, Haut et Court, BBC Film, and BFI.