Dhurandhar wasn’t ‘Oscar material’, Main Vaapas Aaunga was in the running: jury member

Dhurandhar and Main Vaapas Aaunga were in the running for India's representation at the Oscars.

Marathi film Gondhal was chosen as India’s contender for the upcoming Oscars on Friday, and now jury member Vivek Vaswani has shared why the film was chosen over 32 other titles, including Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. Vivek shared that while Imtiaz’s film was in the running, they did not go ahead with it because they assumed that its India-Pakistan storyline might not “resonate with the audience in America.”

Vivek was a member of the 14-person Film Federation of India jury that Gondhal as India’s official entry for the 99th Academy Awards. In a chat with NDTV, he spoke about the selection process and said that the jury was given “very clear instructions” about the kind of film they had to select. “The film has to represent Indian culture and tradition in such a way that it has global appeal. So we’re talking about a film that is Indian and global. This one was,” he said.

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Why Gondhal was chosen

Gondhal, written and directed by Santosh Davakhar, is set across a single night in a remote village in Maharashtra during a traditional Gondhal ceremony, a folk ritual involving music, dance and mythology performed to bless a newlywed couple. Within that setting, the film unfolds a story of intrigue and murder, with the entire suspense narrative playing out against the backdrop of continuous singing and dancing.

Vaswani said this fusion of genre and culture is what set the film apart from every other submission. “It’s a night of intrigue, it’s a night of murder. But that whole night is a festival and the whole night they sing and dance. So the entire intrigue and suspense of the screenplay was covered in a layer of music and dance, which is completely Indian because it is set in a remote village in Maharashtra,” he said.

He added that Ilaiyaraaja composing the music sealed the deal. “And then they call Ilaiyaraaja to do the music. It just made the film unique. And it is very important for anything that we send to the Oscars to be completely unique,” he said.

Why Main Vaapas Aaunga did not make the cut

Vaswani revealed that the final three films considered by the jury were Gondhal, Naga-film Angh and Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. Explaining why Ali’s film, which dealt with the trauma of Partition of India and Pakistan, did not receive enough votes, Vaswani pointed to a concern about how the subject would be perceived internationally.

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“We thought anything to do with India-Pakistan may not resonate with the audience in America. I mean, it’s like Israel sending an anti-Palestine film,” he said. He was quick to clarify that the film itself was not one-sided. “The important thing is that Main Vaapas Aaunga talked about the trauma of war. It was not an anti-Pakistan film. It was not an anti-India film. It was a very sensitive film, the way only Imtiaz Ali can do. But it didn’t get enough votes from the jury,” he said.

He added that Angh got 11 votes out of 14, but for Gondhal, they got a unanimous vote.

Why Dhurandhar was not chosen

Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar franchise, directed by Aditya Dhar, which was among the most commercially successful Hindi films of the past year. However, Dhurandhar received only four votes out of 14 jury members. When asked why the film was not chosen, he said, “Couple of people liked it but we didnt think it was Oscar material.”