diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-09-17-12-59-18.gh-issue-94526.k6c3hr.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-09-17-12-59-18.gh-issue-94526.k6c3hr.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..7271f06347e691
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-09-17-12-59-18.gh-issue-94526.k6c3hr.rst	
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Force ``utf8`` encoding in ``_bootstrap_python`` to fix compilation under path containing non-ascii characters. Patch by Kumar Aditya.
diff --git a/Programs/_bootstrap_python.c b/Programs/_bootstrap_python.c
index 6ecbf0c72b5ff4..042259007042e3 100644
--- a/Programs/_bootstrap_python.c
+++ b/Programs/_bootstrap_python.c
@@ -63,6 +63,17 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 {
     PyStatus status;
 
+    PyPreConfig preconfig;
+    PyPreConfig_InitIsolatedConfig(&preconfig);
+    // To keep code simple, pre-initialization doesn't parse argv.
+    // It ignores -E, -I and -X dev command line options etc.
+    // Force utf8 encoding
+    preconfig.utf8_mode = 1;
+    status = Py_PreInitialize(&preconfig);
+    if (PyStatus_Exception(status)) {
+        Py_ExitStatusException(status);
+    }
+
     PyConfig config;
     PyConfig_InitIsolatedConfig(&config);
     // don't warn, pybuilddir.txt does not exist yet