As it sank in that his film, Gondhal, was India’s official entry for the 99th Academy Awards, Santosh Davakhar became aware of “the huge responsibility”. He had been informed that the declaration would happen on September 18 or 19 and had been searching on Google from the afternoon when people started calling him about the honour.

The Film Federation of India (FFI) announced on Friday that the Marathi film Gondhal was chosen as India’s official entry to the 2027 Oscars.

“India and FFI have shown their faith in our team and our product. I am feeling very nervous but we are ready for the campaign. We have already hired most of the media and PR team in Los Angeles,” said Davakhar, who is based in Sinnar, Nashik.

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Gondhal is a Marathi thriller that unfolds around the traditional Gondhal ritual and folk-performance tradition of Maharashtra. It won the award for the Best Director and Best Cinematographer at the 24th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) in 2026. Davakhar also won the Silver Peacock for Best Director at the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in 2025.

“After the IFFI award, I became very confident about the film. When I visited international film festivals, I had the impression that Indian films revolve around poverty and marginalisation. These are important issues but I also feel that India has a rich heritage and culture and we must represent this in our cinema,” he said.

Santosh Davakhar is a project consultant by profession. A social activist, he started his career as a professor. His CV includes a screenplay writing short course from the Film Television Institute of India. Davakhar’s previous short movie, Adnyat, revolves around class distinctions in the world and won several prizes internationally. Among his other works is directing a government ad film for a cashless economy.

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Davakhar is already working on his next film, about Shahaji Raje, the father of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. “His life was full of struggle. That’s why I want to represent it,” he said.