‘Gondhal’ director Santosh Davakhar: We were confident that our film will stand out

After vouching for the sublimely humanistic Homebound last year as India’s official entry to the Oscars, the Film Federation of India (FFI) has decided to go hyper-local this time, with the selection of Santosh Davakhar’s moody folk-thriller, Gondhal . The Marathi feature was selected from a list of 33 films submitted to the FFI, which included Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis , Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar , Yami Gautam’s Haq, Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga , and Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy , among others. Santosh feels grateful to the FFI for recognising Gondhal . “There’s extreme nervousness now, as it is a huge responsibility on our shoulders. At the same time, we are excited and happy to be selected among so many other films,” he says.