Why ‘Dhurandhar’ not chosen as India’s entry for Oscars?:Jury member Vivek Vaswani says ‘Indian culture should have been shown in the film’

The Marathi thriller film ‘Gondhal’ has been selected as India’s official entry for the 99th Academy Awards. The film beat Ranveer Singh’s ‘Dhurandhar’. ‘Dhurandhar’ received only four votes from the 14-member jury of the Film Federation of India (FFI), which selects India’s Oscar entry. Jury member Vivek Vaswani shared this information. Speaking to NDTV, Vaswani said that some people liked the film, but the jury did not consider it worthy of an Oscar. The jury wanted to choose a film that portrayed Indian culture in a distinct and impactful way. Ranveer Singh played the lead role in the ‘Dhurandhar’ series. It was directed by Aditya Dhar. Both films in the series became blockbusters. 14-member jury made the decision The FFI formed a jury to select the film. It included P Sheshadri, Vijay Patkar, Hitu Kanodia, Shanti Kumar, Sandeep Parashar, Sanjay Patil, Sabu Joseph, Narasimha Nandi, Anil Thomas, Vivek Vaswani, Bijon Dasgupta, Haasan, Vasan and Tanishtha Chatterjee. ‘Gondhal’ selected from 33 films The Marathi film ‘Gondhal’ has been selected as India’s official entry for the 99th Academy Awards, or the 2027 Oscars. The Film Federation of India announced this on Friday. This year, the FFI received a total of 33 films in different languages. They included 14 Hindi films, four each in Marathi, Telugu and Gujarati, three Tamil films, and one each in Malayalam and Nagami. ‘Gondhal’, ‘Aangh’ and ‘Main Wapas Aaunga’ had reached the final. ‘Gondhal’ was selected. ‘Aangh’ received 11 of the 14 votes, while ‘Gondhal’ received the votes of all 14 members.

‘Gondhal’ is a psychological thriller The film ‘Gondhal’ has been written and directed by Santosh Davkhar. It stars Kishor Kadam, Ishita Deshmukh, Yogesh Sohani, Nishad Bhoir and Suresh Vishwakarma in the lead roles. The music has been composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Director Santosh Davkhar received the Silver Peacock Award for Best Director at IFFI 2025. This 2-hour film is based on the folk tradition and religious ritual of ‘Gondhal’ in rural Maharashtra. The story revolves around a Gondhal ritual held at the home of newlyweds Anand and Suman. Sarjerao, the village Patil’s son, is angered at being unable to marry Suman. He cannot accept this marriage, and the sacred ritual gradually turns into a crime and suspense drama.

Last year, ‘Homebound’ was India’s Oscar entry Last year, the film Homebound was sent as India’s entry for the Oscars. Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa played the lead roles in the film.
Last time, ‘One Battle After Another’ won six awards, including Best Film At the 98th Academy Awards (2026), ‘One Battle After Another’ won the most awards, taking home six, including Best Picture. Michael B. Jordan was named Best Actor for ‘Sinners’, while Jessie Buckley was named Best Actress for ‘Hamnet’. ‘Sinners’ received the most nominations, with 16, but won four awards. Meanwhile, two documentaries by Indian-origin filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir were nominated. Priyanka Chopra served as a presenter at the Oscars for the second time. Read the full story here…