India's Oscar Race: 33 Films, 14 of Them in Hindi

The Film Federation of India considered 33 films for its 2027 Oscar submission, and 14 of them were in Hindi. The list of contenders, which the Indian Express published, shows how wide the field was, and how Homebound, last year's entry, fared.

The field

The Indian Express reports that the selection committee considered 33 films for the 99th Academy Awards. Hindi accounted for 14 entries, Marathi, Telugu and Gujarati had four each, and Tamil had three. Malayalam and Nagamese had one each, and there was also a silent film. The committee was chaired by P. Seshadri, and its members included Vijay Patkar, Hutu Kanodia, Shanti Kumar, Sandeep Parashar, Sanjay Patil, Sabu Joseph, Anil Thomas, Vivek Vaswani, Bijon Dasgupta and Tannishtha Chatterjee, among others listed in the report.

Among the films the report names as in contention are Main Vaapas Aaunga, Border 2, Dhurandhar, Dug Dug, Haq, Bhamardo, 120 Bahadur, Sing Geetham, Tera Mera Nata, Ladoo, Ohh My Dog, Balan The Boy, Deool Band 2, Tighi, Peddi, Irumudi, Khoonta, Gandhi Talks, Bison Kalaamadan, Shape of Momo, Governer, 2020 Delhi, Commando Vin Love Story, Ikkis, Pravas, Man Aatale Manaatle, Obsess, Egwa, Angh and Hanuman Ansh. The report says there were others as well.

The winner was Gondhal, a Marathi film directed by Santosh Davakhar.

The rules

Screen Daily explains the eligibility rules. An international feature is a feature-length film, over 40 minutes, produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and it can include animation and documentary. Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their country between Oct. 1, 2025 and Sept. 30, 2026, and the Academy's submission deadline was Sept. 30, 2026.

What happened to Homebound

The Indian Express says last year's entry, Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound, starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor, did not make the Academy's shortlist. Screen Daily's note on this year's India entry says India made the shortlist last year with Homebound, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. The two outlets differ on this point, and we could not reconcile them from the excerpts we have. The Indian Express says it did not make the shortlist, and Screen's excerpt says India made the shortlist. The most careful reading is that the outcome is unclear in our sources.

Ghaywan's Wikipedia entry describes him as a Hindi-language director whose debut Masaan won two prizes at Cannes, including the FIPRESI prize, and who has received a National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards.

India's record

The Indian Express says India has never won the category, and that only three Indian submissions have been nominated: Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan. The Film Federation's own list shows that in recent years the entries have been Laapataa Ladies (Hindi, 2024), 2018 Everyone is a Hero (Malayalam, 2023), Chhello Show (Gujarati, 2022) and Koozhangal (Tamil, 2021).

What happens next

The Academy's process leads from submissions to a 15-film shortlist and then five nominees. The Indian Express says the 99th Academy Awards will be held on March 14, 2027.

Why it matters

The list of 33 shows that the submission panel chose from big commercial films such as Border 2 and Dhurandhar and from small regional ones such as Deool Band 2 and Shape of Momo. We do not know how the jury scored any of them, because the reports we read do not say, and the inclusion of a film on the list does not mean it was seriously considered.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm the Homebound shortlist outcome, because the Indian Express and Screen Daily excerpts disagree. We could not confirm the full list of 33 films, since the report says its list is partial. We could not confirm the jury's scoring. We have not seen the contenders.

Sources

*Cover photo: Kacy Bao, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neeraj_Ghaywan_at_2025_Cannes_Homebound_Photocall_2.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neeraj_Ghaywan_at_2025_Cannes_Homebound_Photocall_2.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 4.0).*