Anjali Jhangiani (THE TIMES OF INDIA; March 27, 2025)
Santosh, the UK’s official entry in the Oscars’ international feature category and a Bafta nominee for best debut feature, has been blocked by Indian film censors, according to a report in UK daily Guardian.
Written and directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, the film was made in India and is in Hindi. According to the Guardian report, Central Board of Film Certification refused to clear the film over concerns about its negative portrayal of police — “depicting deep-rooted misogyny, discrimination against Dalits and the normalization of mistreatment and torture by police officers.”
Censors’ decision disappointing and heartbreaking: Suri
Several CBFC board members TOI spoke to said they were unaware of reasons behind uncertainty over the release in India. “The film also grapples with the issue of sexual violence in India, particularly against lower caste women, and the rising tide of anti-Muslim prejudice in the country,” adds the report.
Author and CBFC board member Ramesh Patange said, “I attend movie reviews once a month, and my role is limited to that. Only the chairman is privy to the board’s day-to-day functioning.” Other board members declined to comment, saying only CBFC chairperson Prasoon Joshi would speak on the issue. Efforts to contact Joshi were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.
CBFC board member and filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri told TOI from Puducherry that he was unaware of any issues with the film.
“In my personal capacity, not as a representative of any organization, I feel deeply distressed that a society which considers itself the spiritual leader of the world is so insecure that it resorts to censorship. Only an insecure society censors art in any form Art, creativity, and literature form the soup that nourishes society. Without it, a society cannot grow,” said Agnihotri.
The Guardian report says Sandhya Suri described the censors’ decision as “disappointing and heartbreaking”.
It also quotes her as saying the censors had demanded a list of radical cuts so lengthy and wide-ranging that they would be impossible to implement, adding that the list of cuts demanded went on for several pages, and included concerns about themes relating to police conduct and wider societal problems “which are deeply baked into the film”.
“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,” the Guardian report quoted Suri as saying.
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Yashika Mathur (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 28, 2025)
Actor Shahana Goswami is extremely disheartened by the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) decision to block the theatrical release of Santosh in India. Despite earning international acclaim and being the UK’s official entry for the 97th Academy Awards, the Sandhya Suri-directed film has hit a roadblock in its home country due to censorship demands.
The 38-year-old finds it particularly disappointing since the film’s story is deeply rooted in India. “It makes me feel very sad. It’s upsetting that audiences here — where the film is set — won’t get to see it. The fact that Santosh has been appreciated at film festivals, even in India, makes it even more unfortunate. It’s a shame that it will not have a theatrical release.”
Santosh, which premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in 2024, is already available online for Indian viewers.
However, the team had hoped for a broader theatrical release, which now seems unlikely unless a resolution is reached. “About the release in India, the censor has given a list of changes they require for the film to release and we as a team are not in agreement with the cuts as they would change the film too much, and so it is in a dead lock where it probably won’t release theatrically in India,” says Shahana.
While she refrains from specifying the CBFC’s objections, reports indicate that the board has raised concerns over the film’s depiction of Islamophobia, misogyny and violence within the Indian police force.