All you need to know about India's Oscar pick: Visaranai

This film is creating waves. We tell you why.

That Tamil film Visaranai is India’s official entry for Oscars 2017 in the Foreign Film Language category is now well known.

Directed by Vetrimaaran, the hard-hitting tale about police brutality and corruption competed with 29 films for entering the Oscar race.

As the film continues to grab headlines, here's all you the need to know about the critically-acclaimed film that could fetch India the coveted Oscar trophy.

Visaranai is based on auto driver-turned-writer M Chandrakumar's novel Lock Up.

A class 10 dropout, Chandrakumar is the author of six Tamil novels.

Starring Dinesh Ravi, Anandhi and Aadukalam Murugadoss, the film is produced by Dhanush and deals with police brutality, corruption and loss of innocence in the face of injustice.

It's about three Tamil immigrants, who are put behind the bars for a crime they haven't committed.

In real life, M Chandrakumar was locked up for 13 days along with three of his friends and tortured to confess a crime they had not committed.

During the first schedule, the film working titles like Kutravaali and Lock-Up.

Dhanush agreed to produce the film even before hearing the full story!

The international version of Visaranai has no music whereas the theatrical release has.

In 2015, Visaranai became the first Tamil movie to be premiered in the Orrizonti (Horizons) section of the 72nd Venice Film Festival, where it won the Amnesty International Italia Award.

It also bagged Cinema for Human Rights’ award at the the festival.

At the 63rd National Film Awards, the film won three honours -- Best Feature Film in Tamil, Best Supporting Actor for Samuthirakani and Best Editing.

Visaranai left behind Marathi film Sairat, Shah Rukh Khan starrer Fan, Akshay Kumar's Airlift and Shahid Kapoor's Udta Punjab to become India's official entry for the Oscars.