India nominates Tamil docudrama for Oscar

Tamil language docu-drama portraying real-life police brutality, the story for which was written by an auto-rickshaw driver, is India's official entry for Best Foreign Language film at the 89th Academy Awards to be held in 2017.

The national award-winning film “Visaranai”, directed by Vetrimaran, and produced by actor Dhanush's Wunderbar Films, documents four migrant workers who suffer police brutality and corruption after being jailed on false charges.

Part of the film is based on true events recorded in the novel “Lock Up” written by M Chandrakumar, an auto-rickshaw driver from the southern Indian city of Coimbatore.

Dhanush said it was a proud and joyous moment for his production house and director Vetrimaran. He praised the cast and crew of the film as 'fantastic.'

The last Tamil movie which had made it to the list as official entry for the Oscars was “Hey Ram”, directed by and starring Kamal Haasan. The film was simultaneously made in Hindi in 2000.

“Visaranai” premiered at the Venice International Film festival in 2015 and had a theatrical release in February this year.