Tamil film 'Visaranai' is India's official Oscar entry for 2017

Hyderabad: National Award winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran's critically acclaimed Tamil drama "Visaranai" was on Thursday announced as India's official pick for Oscars 2017 in the Foreign Language Film category.

"Out of the 29 movies in the competition, 'Visaranai' was chosen by the jury unanimously," filmmaker Ketan Mehta, jury chairperson of Film Festival of India (FFI), said here.

A post from the official Twitter handle of Vetrimaaran's banner Grassroot Film Company, read: "We're on cloud9!!! 'Visaranai' has been chosen to represent India at the Oscars."

Based on the novel "Lock Up" by auto-rickshaw driver-turned-writer M. Chandrakumar, the film is about organised crime within the police force. It also throws the spotlight on police brutality.

"Visaranai" features Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Ajay Ghosh and Kishore in the lead.

The film earned critical acclaim earlier last year when it had its world premiere at Venice International Film Festival. It also won National Film Awards.

The film was produced by Dhanush, who had released the film under his home banner Wunderbar Films.