A partnership of Vertigo Releasing and Civic Studios
MUMBAI: Vertigo Releasing is partnering with Civic Studios on the UK release of the critically acclaimed and award-winning film Santosh, releasing theatrically on the 21st March 2025.
Santosh is written and directed by the BAFTA-nominated Sandhya Suri, and stars Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar. Selected as the UK’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards, the film has received four BIFA Nominations including Best British Independent Film, Best Screenplay, Best Debut Screenwriter and Best Breakthrough Producer.
The film is produced by Good Chaos in association with Suitable Pictures (India) and in co-production with Haut Et Court (France) and Razor Film (Germany). Santosh made its global premiere in Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, with official selection at Telluride Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. The film was selected in debut competition at the London Film Festival and Tokyo FilmEx, winning Best First Feature at Jerusalem Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Seville European Film Festival and was awarded the Golden Frog in the Directors’ Debuts Competition at this year’s Camerimage..
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.
This film is a unique take on a forensic thriller, following a rookie female police officer’s life-changing initiation to the police force in rural India. Santosh has already had a successful theatrical release in France, by Haut Et Court Distribution with over 150,000 admissions to date, with the film gearing up for its US release via Metrograph on December 27th of this year.
Anushka Shah, Founder and CEO Civic Studios, said “At Civic Studios, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to present ‘Santosh’ here in the UK. It’s an extremely important film 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.”
Rupert Preston, CEO Vertigo Releasing, said “We’re very excited to be working with Civic Studios on bringing this deeply compelling, complex and gripping film to audiences all across the UK”
Official synopsis
Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh, a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India. Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma, a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption, forcing her to confront not only the brokenness of the system around her, but her own place within it.
IN UK CINEMAS FROM 21 MARCH 2025
Link to the trailer: HERE