India has two films in the race for best international feature at next year’s Oscars, but there have been decades of debate over the country's previous selections.
Santosh Davakhar’s Marathi-language thriller Gondhal is the official submission, while Theja Rio’s drama Angh, set in Nagaland, has qualified through winning the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. New Academy rules allow non-English-language films to enter independently after winning one of six designated festival awards.
Angh and Gondhal will now seek places on the shortlist, due to be announced on December 15, before the final nominations on January 21, 2027.
Previously, securing the Film Federation of India’s backing was essential to an Indian film’s chances in this category. The federation's annual decision was particularly consequential in a country with numerous film industries working in different languages.
Only three of India’s submissions have reached the final nominations: Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan.
Some choices have prompted repeated arguments over whether selectors should prioritise artistic merit, a film's representation of India, or its prospects with Academy voters.
Here are five selections that drew criticism, and the films that were passed over.
Laapataa Ladies (2024), chosen over All We Imagine as Light
Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies, released internationally as Lost Ladies, follows two newlywed women whose journeys are upended when a husband mistakes another veiled bride for his wife on a train. Its humour and examination of women’s independence earned acclaim, but its selection for the 2025 Oscars placed it above a film that had already received a major international award.
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, about nurses navigating work and relationships in Mumbai, had won the Grand Prix at Cannes. That recognition made it a prominent alternative to Rao’s film.
The film federation’s explanation intensified the debate. President Ravi Kottarakara told The Hollywood Reporter India that the jury felt Kapadia’s film resembled “a European film taking place in India”. The selection citation also attracted criticism for describing Indian women as “a strange mixture of submission and dominance”.
Jury chairman Jahnu Barua subsequently defended the decision in an interview with the Hindustan Times: “The jury felt that her film was very poor technically.”
Laapataa Ladies did not reach the Academy’s shortlist. The international feature award ultimately went to Walter Salles’s Brazilian drama I’m Still Here.
The Good Road (2013) over The Lunchbox
Gyan Correa’s The Good Road became the first Gujarati-language film selected as India’s Oscar entry. Set in Kutch, it brings together stories of travellers and children who have lost their way, and had won the National Film Award for best Gujarati film.
Its selection nevertheless provoked a backlash because Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox was among the contenders. Starring Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur, Batra’s film follows a widower and an unhappily married woman who begin exchanging letters after a lunch delivery goes astray.
The film had attracted international acclaim and secured North American distribution through Sony Pictures Classics, giving its supporters reason to believe it could mount a strong awards campaign. Co-producer Anurag Kashyap and Indian presenter Karan Johar publicly criticised the decision to pass it over.
Selection committee chairman Goutam Ghose defended The Good Road by pointing to its unfamiliar setting and characters, while acknowledging the strength of The Lunchbox. Other contenders included Ship of Theseus, English Vinglish and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
The Good Road did not secure an Oscar nomination.
Barfi! (2012) over Gangs of Wasseypur, Paan Singh Tomar and Kahaani
Anurag Basu’s Barfi! centres on a deaf man, played by Ranbir Kapoor, and his relationships with Shruti, played by Ileana D’Cruz, and Jhilmil, an autistic woman played by Priyanka Chopra. Its selection came amid debate about similarities between some of its sequences and earlier films.
Comparisons circulated online to works by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, as well as The Notebook and other international releases. Basu defended the Chaplin references as deliberate homage.
The controversy also concerned the alternatives. Kashyap’s crime epic Gangs of Wasseypur, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, about an athlete who becomes a bandit, and Sujoy Ghosh’s thriller Kahaani were among the films considered.
Committee chairwoman Manju Borah defended the choice in The Indian Express: “Barfi! was endearing and joyful. It collectively had all the elements.”
The decision prompted questions about the qualities the committee valued and whether a more challenging film might have fared better internationally. Barfi! did not receive a nomination.
Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) over Dharm
The dispute over Eklavya: The Royal Guard reached the Bombay High Court. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s thriller stars Amitabh Bachchan as a guard whose loyalty to a royal household is tested by its secrets, with an ensemble including Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan and Sharmila Tagore.
It was selected ahead of Bhavna Talwar’s Dharm, which stars Pankaj Kapur as a Hindu priest whose beliefs are challenged after his family takes in a child later discovered to be Muslim.
Talwar challenged the selection, alleging that some jury members’ relationships with Chopra had compromised the process. The federation retained Eklavya as its entry.
In October 2007, Talwar stopped pressing for a review of the choice after the submission deadline had passed. Her lawyer said she wanted greater transparency in future selections, while the federation’s lawyer told the court that it would draw up new guidelines.
Eklavya did not reach the Academy’s shortlist.
Devdas (2002) over Kannathil Muthamittal and The Legend of Bhagat Singh
After Lagaan secured a nomination at the 2002 Oscars, India chose another lavish Hindi production for the following year’s awards: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas.
Adapted from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel, the tragic romance stars Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit. It was selected ahead of films such as Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal, about an adopted girl searching for her birth mother against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s civil war, and Rajkumar Santoshi’s The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
The film’s reception at an Academy screening became part of the criticism of its selection. In a contemporary report for Rediff, publicist and Academy member John Friedken, who had supported Lagaan, said audience members had left the screening.
“To tell you the truth, a lot of people walked out,” he said. “I was among those who walked out.”
Devdas did not receive a nomination.
