LONDON: London-based filmmaker Sandhya Suri‘s Uttar Pradesh-set police thriller “Santosh“, which premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, was on Wednesday named as Britain’s Oscar entry in the international feature category.
“Santosh”, which includes Hindi dialogues, revolves around a newly widowed housewife as she inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a young girl’s murder.
Britain won 2024 Oscar in the international film category with “The Zone of Interest”.
“Santosh” has been hailed as a “deft thriller” and complex character study of a female cop, played by Shahana Goswami, whose moral conflict intertwines several themes of class, caste and intolerance. “I’m not really somebody who wants to make a film because they want to teach somebody anything. I don’t have a particular campaign or things that I must tick off. So, I don’t like didactic films. But what was interesting to me was the idea of a type of place,” Suri .
Suri, who is also the writer on the project, has drawn upon her own Indian heritage and documentary filmmaking expertise in shooting her first feature film in and around Lucknow over 44 days with the help of a talented local crew.”I wanted to shoot in UP because I’m originally from there and also I wanted to film in a lot of live locations, that was very important for me to have that feeling of authenticity,” she shared, reflecting upon all the background sound that the crew had to contend with amid ongoing local festivities.
Suri, born and raised in north-east England, finds herself constantly drawn to India. “I wanted to shoot in UP because I’m originally from there and … (it) was very important for me to have feeling of authenticity,” she told PTI.
