The Indian theatrical release of “Santosh,” which landed on the Oscars‘ international feature shortlist, has been delayed due to an unexpected holdup at India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
The film, which was directed by Sandhya Suri and was the U.K. entry to the Oscars’ international feature category, was acquired by PVR Inox Pictures in December.
Currently on release in Los Angeles, the movie follows Santosh, a widow who inherits her deceased husband’s position as a police constable in rural north India. The narrative centers on her involvement in investigating the murder of an underage girl from a marginalized caste community, alongside a feminist police inspector named Sharma.
The Jan. 10 release was suspended after the film failed to receive certification clearance, despite having previously secured script approval to shoot in India and Indian government production incentives. The production team is currently awaiting detailed feedback regarding the CBFC’s concerns.
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Variety reached out to the CBFC chair and CEO for comment but hadn’t heard back after 24 hours, by the time of going to press.
The film is backed by the BFI and BBC Film (both U.K.) in co-production with ZDF (Germany) and Arte (France), in association with Haut et Court Distribution (France) and with the support of France’s Aide aux Cinémas du Monde-CNC-Institut Français. Production companies are Good Chaos (U.K.) in association with Suitable Pictures in India and in co-production with Razor Film in Germany and Haut et Court in France. Producers include Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay and Alan McAlex.
Goodridge, who was a producer on Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning “Triangle of Sadness,” told Variety: “We were so excited to have the film released in India on Jan. 10 and we are still hopeful that the film will be released in the not too distant future. Since the script was approved by the Indian authorities, we did not expect any delays.”
“Santosh,” set in a fictitious northern Indian state, is structured as a police procedural but one with Indian caste and religion politics deeply baked into it. “I don’t make films for messaging, per se, but for me, it was about a type of place where these things just hang there,” Suri had told Variety before the film’s Cannes premiere last year. “There are places where religious intolerance, casteism, prejudice and misogyny, they’re sitting heavily in the atmosphere. And I was very interested to look at Santosh and think, if a woman’s coming from a house, maybe the household was her kingdom, and her reign was there. And then she moves into this place. What I was wanting to explore was about the casual nature of these things, and how it might infiltrate and how she might absorb these forces.”
Suri is known for her documentaries “I for India” (2005), which bowed at Sundance, and “Around India with a Movie Camera” (2018) and Toronto-winning and BAFTA nominated fiction short “The Field” (2018).