Kiran Rao's film Laapataa Ladies has been chosen as India's official entry for the Oscars 2025. The Film Federation of India made this announcement on September 23. The Hindi film, which humorously explores patriarchy, was selected from a pool of 29 films, as reported by PTI.
Some of the competing films included Animal, the Malayalam National Award-winning Aattam, and Cannes winner All We Imagine As Light. A 13-member committee, headed by Assamese director Jahnu Barua, unanimously selected Laapataa Ladies for the Best International Film category at the Academy Awards.
Other notable contenders were the Tamil film Maharaja, the Telugu films Kalki 2898 AD and Hanu-Man, and the Hindi films Swatantraya Veer Savarkar and Article 370. Last year, India's entry was the Malayalam film 2018: Everyone is a Hero.
Laapataa Ladies stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Ravi Kishan and Chhaya Kadam in key roles.
"I love this feeling...we were not expecting it but we were definitely hoping for something of that sort to happen. Today it finally happened. So, we are quite happy. In a day or two, I will meet Kiran (Kiran Rao) ma'am and Aamir sir (Aamir Khan). I will meet the entire team soon. I just want to say that I am grateful...Can't describe this feeling in words," Pratibha told ANI.
Director Kiran Rao also expressed her happiness while she mentioned that she was not expecting it.
"I am very happy. I was not expecting an Oscar entry as many good films have been made this year. Now we will have a chance to show this film to a much larger audience. I would like to thank the audience for giving so much love to this film. I think there is something for everyone in this film," Rao said.
Laapataa Ladies, India's official entry for the Oscars 2025, is streaming on Netflix. The movie started streaming on the OTT giant on April 26.
Since its OTT release, the movie has received widespread acclaim as social media is often flooded with words of appreciation for the movie.
