Gondhal’s six-city preview blitz kicks off October 9 — and it’s not just a rollout, it’s a reckoning. The Marathi thriller, India’s official Oscar entry for the 99th Academy Awards, is bypassing the usual festival circuit grind to land straight in theatres across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. No wide release date yet, but the exclusivity is deliberate: this isn’t a film meant to be watched on a phone or streamed at midnight. It’s meant to be felt in a room full of strangers, under a shared roof of silence and tension. The makers are betting that the cultural weight of the Gondhal ritual, a centuries-old rite from rural Maharashtra involving music, dance, and myth. Demands more than a screen. It demands a space where breaths sync with the rhythm of the drums. So what’s the story? Suman, a newlywed trapped in a suffocating marriage, turns her husband’s obsession with the Gondhal tradition into a weapon. Her lover, Sarjerao, is equally consumed by the ritual’s mythology. Together, they play a game of psychological warfare disguised as devotion. The film’s core isn’t horror or revenge, it’s the slow erosion of identity within a system that demands performance. And Davakhar, the director, knows it. He’s not selling a thriller. He’s inviting audiences to step into a world where every gesture carries meaning, and every silence could be a threat. The previews will be in Marathi and Hindi. The languages of the film’s origin and its primary audience. But the wider release, when it comes, will stretch across six languages: Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. That’s not just distribution. That’s ambition. This isn’t a regional film playing regional games. It’s a story rooted in Maharashtra’s soil, now reaching beyond it, not through translation, but through resonance. DNA India reports the announcement came Friday, but the real news is the timing. With the Oscars looming, the team isn’t waiting for validation. They’re building momentum. The first screenings start Thursday morning. By the time the world sees Gondhal, it’ll already have been lived in. What happens next? The wider theatrical release date remains unannounced. But one thing’s certain: if the previews go well, the film won’t just be seen. It’ll be remembered.