British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s debut fiction feature, Santosh, is the United Kingdom’s official entry in the best international feature film category at the Oscars. Set in a fictional North Indian town, it is centred on two Indian actors—Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar—in the lead roles of policewomen Santosh and Inspector Sharma, respectively. The UK-Germany-France co-production, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, is about the young widow Santosh, who is offered her deceased husband’s job in the police.
It is while investigating the rape and murder of a minor girl from a disempowered caste, that her own understanding of herself and the world begins, with her senior, Inspector Sharma as her mentor. CE caught up with Sandhya in Cannes, the day after the film’s premiere. She spoke about the film’s central theme of violence against women, the extensive research that went into it, recreating small town North India on-screen and choosing Shahana and Sunita for the lead roles.
It is a very personal film to me in terms of just the feeling the film evokes. I don't believe I have to necessarily make something autobiographical. It was more about trying to say something about being a woman in this particular type of situation.
It's not something that happened to me. But then it became very lived in, in terms of the extremely long and thorough research process, that started with a sentiment and a need t.
