Sandhya Suri’s stunning and disturbing police procedural Santosh which has been denied go-ahead by the Indian censor board, was all set to stream on Lionsgate from October 17. However, just hours before streaming the film’s OTT premiere was cancelled.
In the film, Shahana Goswami plays a small-town cop grappling with corruption, casteism, communalism, misogyny, and lawlessness.
Multiple sources confirm that the decision to backtrack on its streaming commitment was taken by the OTT platform and not due to extraneous pressures. It was apparently felt that streaming Santosh could stir up trouble for Lionsgate in the volatile political scenario.
Earlier director Suri had refused to accept the multiple cuts which the Central Board Of Film Certification had ordered and preferred to forego a theatre release.
Speaking on the hard hitting provocative portrayal of corruption in Santosh, Sandhya Suri says, “Santosh for me was always about a type of place… a small backwater town where violence, corruption, misogyny, casteism and religious intolerance just linger casually in the air. It’s not pointed at, it’s just… there… What is it like to be surrounded by that, to breathe it in daily?”
Sandhya sensed trouble from beforehand. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a story about a good cop in a bad system but rather a morally murky universe and Santosh finding her particular shade of grey within it.
“It was very important to me to ensure that everything in the film was researched in great detail, that I could stand by each thing in the film and know it had firm roots, not just in terms of documentary research but also in terms of Santosh and her journey. Hence its long gestation. For me a good film is also a sum of all its details, so layering those details in was important for me in regards to the film’s authenticity.”
