'Santosh' Will Be The U.K.'s Best International Feature Oscar Submission

Since its debut at Cannes, Santosh has received rave reviews (there are only a handful of reviews so far, but Rotten Tomatoes currently rates it as 100% Fresh). The Hindi language movie is the debut fictional feature-length film from director Sandhya Suri. It is the story of a widow who takes over her late husband's position as the local police constable, only to discover that policing allows her to help young women in trouble. Soon enough, she's trying to solve the brutal murder of a young girl despite not having the proper training or the respect of her male peers. 

Now, the film has garnered one of the most significant nods yet, as BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) has selected it as the official Academy Awards submission for the U.K.'s Best International Feature Film. The BAFTA committee must do a delicate dance every year when selecting their entry. One of the main criteria for the International Category is that the submission cannot be in English, which is a bit awkward when you are a foreign country mainly separated from the U.S. and Canada via an ocean and a common language. 

Last year, the U.K. submitted the German-language World War II drama The Zone of Interest, which the producers pushed hard as a "British" film ahead of being selected for Best International Feature and were rewarded by winning the category. Santosh, a co-production financed by the U.K., India, Germany, and France, is less easily cut and dried. The director is British-Indian, but the cast is all out of Bollywood, and the Indian cultural aspects of the film primarily make up the movie's central theme, making it feel like an India-produced film to most viewers.

Here’s the film’s synopsis.

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.

Shahana Goswami (A Suitable Boy) stars as the titular Santosh Saini, with Sunita Rajwar (The White Elephant) co-starring as Geeta Sharma. The cast also includes Sanjay Bishnoi (Delhi Crime),
Kushal Dubey (Pyaar vs Dosti 2), Nawal Shukla (Bestseller), and Pratibha Awasthi (Raid).

Written and directed by Sandhya Suri, Santosh debuted at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival under the Un Certain Regard banner. It is her first fictional feature film; her previous works include the feature-length documentaries I for India and Around India with a Movie Camera, both of which she directed and wrote. Ama Ampadu, Eva Yates, Diarmid Scrimshaw, Lucia Haslauer, and Martin Gerhard executive produced the film.

Santosh premiered in limited release in the U.S. in July 2024. It is expected to return to theaters in December 2024 and, at that time, become available as a streaming rental.