India's official entry to Oscars 2022 is Tamil film 'Koozhangal'

India has finalised it's official entry into the Oscars 2022 and it is Tamil film - Koozhangal.

The PS Vinothraj directorial has been selected as India's official entry to the 94th Academy Awards. 

Shaji N Karun, the chairperson of the 15-member selection committee, announced the decision while Film Federation of India (FFI) Secretary-General Supran Sen confirmed that the decision was a unanimous one. The Academy Awards for 2021 will be held on March 27, 2022, in Los Angeles. Speaking about the selection, Shaji N Karun said, “In the centenary year of Satyajit Ray, it is rather poetic that we had the screening in Kolkata. Ray was the torchbearer of Indian content to the world and we will strive to select a film that epitomises Indianness and its varied culture".

Koozhangal, which is based on the relationship between an alcoholic father and his son and follows their journey together to bring back the wife/mother who has gone off to her father’s house, is based on a real incident that took place in director Vinothraj’s family, inspiring him to spin it into a story for his debut film. The feature has already won the prestigious Tiger Award at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam held in Netherlands earlier this year. The film has presented by Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan and featured music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

The film had to beat 14 others from across the country that were in the running to be sent to the Oscars, including Amit Masurkar's Vidya Balan-starrer 'Sherni' and Shoojit Sircar's Sardar Udham Singh biopic starring Vicky Kaushal, Sidharth Malhotra-starrer Captain Vikram Batra biopic, 'Kaagaz' featuring Pankaj Tripathi, and Farhan Akhtar's sports film, 'Toofan' from the Hindi film industry. Besides these, Tamil film 'Mandela', Marathi films 'Aata Vel Zaali', 'Karkhanisanchi Waari' and 'Godavari', Assamese film 'Bridge, Gujrati film 'Chhello Show', Malayalam film 'Nayattu' and Gojri film 'Laila Aur Satt Geet' were also in the running and were screened at Kolkata's Bijoli cinema where the screening process took place.