“Santosh,” the acclaimed Indian crime drama that is the U.K.’s submission for international film Oscar, finally has U.K. distributor on board, with Vertigo Releasing partnering with Civic Studio for a theatrical release on March 21, 2025.
The Hindi-language film, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes earlier this year, is the directorial feature debut of of British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, and stars Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar.
Set in rural northern India, the film follows newly-widowed Santosh, who inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable. When an underage girl from one of India’s so-called “lower castes” is murdered, she is pulled into the investigation by a charismatic feminist inspector.
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Following its Cannes bow, “Santosh” was part of the official selection in Telluride and Toronto, and was selected in the debut competition at the London Film Festival and Tokyo FilmEx, winning best first feature at the Jerusalem Film Festival and best screenplay at the Seville European Film Festival. It was recently awarded the Golden Frog in the directors’ debuts competition at Camerimage.
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The film has already had a successful theatrical release in France via Haut Et Court Distribution with over 150,000 admissions to date, and is gearing up for a U.S. release through Metrograph on Dec. 27. This Sunday, “Santosh” will go into the British Independent Film Awards with four nominations, including best British independent film, best screenplay, best debut screenwriter and best breakthrough producer.
But for all the critical acclaim, overseas success and awards and nominations, “Santosh” has up until now struggled to find a suitable home in the U.K., with many in the industry claiming that its difficulties are symbolic of the current state of indie film distribution, which has made it much harder for more arthouse titles to succeed theatrically.
“Santosh” is produced by Good Chaos in association with Suitable Pictures (India) and in co-production with Haut Et Court (France) and Razor Film (Germany). Backed by the BFI (awarding National Lottery funding) and BBC Film, the film is produced by Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay and Alan McAlex. Ama Ampadu, Eva Yates, Diarmid Scrimshaw, Lucia Haslauer and Martin Gerhard serve as executive producers. MK2 is handling world sales for the title.
“We’re very excited to be working with Civic Studios on bringing this deeply compelling, complex and gripping film to audiences all across the U.K.,” said Rupert Preston, CEO Vertigo Releasing.
“At Civic Studios, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to present ‘Santosh’ here in the UK,” said Anushka Shah, founder and CEO Civic Studios. “It’s an extremely important film that is both a thriller that keeps you at the edge of your seat as well as a critical deep dive into some of the most pressing social issues in India today. It’s a movie that needs to be seen by audiences around the world.”
