Bollywood saw a lot of ups and downs, commercially and otherwise, these past two years due to the coronavirus outbreak. A lot of filmmakers had to go the OTT way to showcase their movies. In what comes as great news for the industry, two such digitally-released films, Sherni and Udham Singh, starring Vidya Balan and Vicky Kaushal respectively, have been shortlisted for the 94th Academy Awards.
Speaking of Sherni, Balan played a forest officer on the lookout for a man-eating tigress. The film also features Sharat Saxena, Mukul Chadda, Vijay Raaz, Ila Arun and Brijendra Kala, and garnered a positive response upon release. The film, directed by Amit Masurkar, was released on Amazon Prime Video. This is Amit Masurkar's second film that has become India's official entry to the Oscars. His previous release 'Newton', starring Rajkummar Rao, was also selected in 2017.

Meanwhile, Sardar Udham is a biopic of freedom fighter Sardar Udham Singh, who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in 1940. He assassinated the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in British India to avenge the brutal killings of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919. Sardar Udham, which also features Amol Parashar as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, was released on Amazon Prime Video on October 16.

The 94th Academy Awards will honour the best films that have been released since March 1, 2021. The official ceremony will take place in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on March 27, 2022.