Internationally acclaimed film Santosh will not release in India. The Oscar-nominated film which was sent to The Academy as UK’s official entry this year, will not release in India as the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has blocked its release as they objected to the portrayal of police brutality, caste discrimination, and misogyny in the Shahana Goswami starrer, as per The Guardian.

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Santosh is written and directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri. After the censor board of India blocked its release, she was left feeling heartbroken. She said, “It was surprising for all of us because I didn’t feel that these issues were particularly new to Indian cinema or hadn’t been raised before by other films''.

Santosh team upset with CBFC's decision

Sandhya revealed that the CBFC has demanded “impossible” to implement cuts in the film. While she didn’t share the exact details of the cuts asked for, she said that the list of censor’s demands, was extremely long and included concerns about themes relating to police conduct and wider societal problems.

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She told The Guardian, “It was very important to me that the film is released in India so I did try to figure out if there was a way to make it work. But in the end it was just too difficult to make those cuts and have a film that still made sense, let alone stayed true to its vision.”

She doesn’t feel that her film ''glorifies violence in a way that many other films focusing on the police have done. There’s nothing sensationalist about it.”

The leading actress of the film, Shahana Goswami also sided with the director and told India Today Digital that the team of Santosh doesn't agree with list of changes given by the censor board and they feel the cuts would change the film too much.

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Santosh deals with social evils like misogyny, discrimination against Dalits, sexual violence, mistreatment by police officers and more.

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Santosh is an award-winning film

Santosh had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. It was the UK’s official entry for the Oscars’ international feature category. It was also nominated for a Bafta for best debut feature this year. Shahana Goswami and Sandhya Suri also won Best Actress and Best New Director at the Asian Film Awards.

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