MUMBAI: Ananth Mahadevan's Marathi directorial "Mai Ghat: Crime No 103/2005" has been nominated as India's entry at SAARC International Film Festival. The film is based on the true story of a woman in Kerala who fought for justice for her son over 13 years, following his death owing to police torture in custody. The guilty policemen were sentenced to death by a special CBI court.

Mahadevan believes his film holds relevance at an international film festival, at a time when judgement was passed in the George Floyd case in the US on Wednesday. The verdict declared a former Minneapolis policeman, Derek Chauvin, guilty of killing African-American Floyd, by pinning him to the pavement with his knee on May 25 last year for over nine minutes, which led to the latter's death. The incident triggered the Black Lives Matter campaign.

"The South Asian significance of the trial against police brutality is seen in the light of the conviction of the police officer in the George Floyd case in the US. The war against racial discrimination has now assumed global proportions and Prabhavati Amma (the protagonist of his story) could be the Indian torchbearer in such "George Floyd" cases all over the world. The nomination is also a triumph for Mohini Gupta, the film's producer who has been a sympathiser of human rights all along," Mahadevan said.

The film features Usha Jadhav, Rahul Suryavanshi, Ravi Singh. The SAARC International Film Festival is scheduled to take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and dates are yet to be announced.