Bengali film ‘Putul’ makes it to Oscars 2025 Best Picture contender’s list

KOLKATA: Director Indira Dhar Mukherjee was taken aback when she saw the email from the Academy Awards committee announcing her Bengali debut directorial ‘Putul’ has been selected to compete in the Best Picture category at the 97th Academy Awards. This makes ‘Putul’ the first Bengali film in history to be considered for a nomination at the prestigious Oscars.

Written, directed and produced by Mukherjee, ‘Putul’ features an ensemble cast, including Tanushree Shankar, Mumtaz Sorcar, Sujan Mukherjee and Konineeca Bandopadhyay. With just two months to go until the 97th Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the list of 323 eligible feature films. Among the 207 films competing for Best Picture, seven are from India, including ‘Putul’. The other Indian films in the running are ‘Kanguva’ (Tamil), ‘Aadujeevitham’ (Malayalam), ‘Santosh’ (Hindi), ‘Swatantrya Veer Savarkar’ (Hindi), ‘All We Imagine as Light’ (Malayalam-Hindi), and ‘Girls Will Be

Girls’ (Hindi-English). “When you start making a film, awards are never the goal. Getting on the Oscars list was beyond my imagination,” said an excited Mukherjee, who is also the producer of ‘Putul’. “The Oscars represent the highest honour in the world of cinema. I’m overwhelmed that the Academy committee and jury members appreciated our film,” the director told Millennium Post.

‘Putul’ was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and Mukherjee said that the journey of the film so far has been organic. “I don’t have the bandwidth to campaign for the film right now. If we move to the next stage, we’ll plan accordingly. For me, just being one of 207 films competing worldwide is already a huge success,” she said.