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The Marathi film, Gondhal (which means ‘Chaos’) is India’s choice for the upcoming (99th) Academy Awards. The Film Federation of India announced the winner among 33 films at a press conference on September 19. Eminent Kannada filmmaker P. Sheshadri was the chairman of the Selection Committee.
This is the fourth Marathi film to be chosen for submission for the Best International Feature film category. The earlier winners were Shwaas (2005), Harishchandraachi Factory (2009)—the biopic of Dadasaheb Phalke, the founder of Indian cinema—and Court (2015)—which also had its dialogues in more Indian languages.
(At this point, I would like to mention that I was a member of the National Film Awards Jury in 2015 when we choseCourt. And I was also a member of the Jury or Selection Committee for Oscars 2026 last year when we selected Homebound.)
Written and directed by Santosh Davakhar, the film features Kishor Kadam, Ishita Deshmukh, Yogesh Sohoni, Nishad Bhoir and Anuj Prabhu. The film, after Hello Jai Hind! (2011), marks the second Marathi film to have music by South stalwart Ilaiyaraaja.
Says Gondhal’s director, “It’s really a proud feeling that my film has been selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars. A Marathi film has been chosen after 11 years, which is an honor for Maharashtra, and my technical team and their HODs, my actors and my family all are a part of this honor. Our approach was always international and this film was possible after three years of research and two years of very hard work. It’s really an amazing feeling that my film will be representing India. I remember feeling very proud whenever our sportspeople would go to participate in the Olympics. This is a similar emotion. I would like to thank the FFI (Film Federation of India) Jury and the Indian government for this honor.”
He further observes, “I have seen that our films’ international representation is often done by subjects about or revolving around poverty, or casteism. I personally feel that our country has so much to offer by way of heritage, diversity and cultures. My film presents these aspects and I am once again thankful to the jury. The film revolves around devotion, deception and desire. It is also a murder mystery set in a single night in a village. We are now planning to re-release the film soon.”
Davakhar has made his feature film debut with Gondhal. An Indian Institute of Management graduate and an entrepreneur who has also made short films, he says, “There are a lot of new directors and fresh subjects in Marathi cinema and they are bringing good content, especially with the emergence of new platforms. This is upgrading Marathi cinema and also appealing to GenZee. My Gondhal was premiered at the Indian International Film Festival (IFFI) in Goa last year and it won me the Silver Peacock for Best Direction. This is the first time any Marathi film has won this award.”
Now that Gondhal has climbed the first step towards global recognition, how does Davakhar plan to go ahead with the vital aspect of promoting the film in the US? “We already have a roadmap for our film,” he replies. “We have organized a team to work for us in Los Angeles, a team from Finland for social media and we will be working for the next four to five months to get there.”
What about his forthcoming projects? “My next film, Shahajiraje, Chhatrapati Shivaji’s father, is in Hindi. The details will be disclosed later. Today, I hope that Indians in America support my film.”
