Mumbai: Marathi thriller ‘Gondhal’ will represent India at the 2027 Academy Awards, the Film Federation of India (FFI) announced on Friday.
The film was selected over several notable contenders, including Hindi blockbuster Dhurandhar and this year’s sleeper hit Hanuman Ansh.
A total of 33 films were submitted for consideration, including 14 Hindi films, four each in Marathi, Telugu and Gujarati, three in Tamil, and one each in Malayalam and Nagamese. The submissions also included a silent film.
Directed by Santosh Davakhar, Gondhal will compete in the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards. Davakhar was previously honoured with the Silver Peacock Award at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2025.
The 12-member jury comprised P Sheshadri, Vijay Patkar, Hutu Kanodia, Shanti Kumar, Sandeep Parashar, Sanjay Patil, Sabu Joseph, Anil Thomas, Vivek Vaswani, Bijon Dasgupta, Haasan Vasan and Tannishtha Chatterjee.
The 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 14, 2027.
Several major releases were also among the 33 films considered for India’s Oscar submission.
The list included Dhurandhar, Dhurandhar The Revenge, Haq, 120 Bahadur, Main Vaapas Aaunga, Peddi, Irumudi, Dorothy, Border 2, Gandhi Talks, Bison: Kaalamadan, Shape of Momo, Governor, 2020 Delhi, Ikkis, Pravas, Obsess, Egwa, Angh and Hanuman Ansh, among others.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar features Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt and Akshaye Khanna. The two-part franchise has reportedly earned around ₹3,000 crore at the box office.
Meanwhile, Dr Vishal Chaturvedi’s Hanuman Ansh is a devotional biographical drama inspired by his book Divine Detour: That Changed My Life, which chronicles the life of Neem Karoli Baba.
The film stars Shobhinaw Satyaa and Chandan Anand in the lead roles and has emerged as one of the year’s highest-grossing films.
