Kiran Rao hopes ‘Laapataa Ladies’ is picked as India’s Oscar entry

Filmmaker Kiran Rao says she hopes her film “Laapataa Ladies” will be considered for India’s official entry at the 2025 Academy Awards. It is the filmmaker’s long-cherished dream that her film would represent the country at the Oscar stage. At the same time, Rao said the Film Federation of India (FFI) will pick the best film.

“My dream would be fulfilled if it was, if it would go (to Oscars). But it’s a process, and I’m hoping it’ll (Laapataa Ladies) be considered. I’m sure the best film will go, whoever they choose in the scheme of things,” Rao told PTI.   “Laapataa Ladies” is a heartwarming and empowering take on two brides in rural India in 2001 who accidently get swapped during a train journey. The film is produced by Rao’s Kindling Productions and Aamir Khan Productions.

The film, which was released in March this year to universal praise from the critics, features Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta and Sparsh Shrivastav in the lead roles alongside Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam and Geeta Aggarwal Sharma. Rao on Thursday attended film institute Whistling Woods International’s “Celebrate Cinema 2024” along with writer Sneha Desai and Goel.

The filmmaker said she feels overwhelmed by the love coming her way for the movie. “They’ve picked up all the little nuances and every single detail. It’s really so heartening and rewarding to a filmmaker when there’s that kind of love. It’s not just (limited to) ‘it’s a good film and you carry on’,” she said. The critically-acclaimed film aims to promote the idea of gender equality in the rural space of India as well as emphasises women education and empowerment.

Last month, both Rao and Khan attended a special screening of the film at the Supreme Court of India. The screening was organised for judges, their families and officials. “It’s the vision and foresight of our chief justice to screen a film like this for staff and for justices to start conversations on gender parity, gender equality, women’s empowerment. The fact that he watched the film and reached out to us, we couldn’t believe it. We were so grateful and excited.

“It really gave us a chance to take this film to a wider consciousness and audience because the Supreme Court and the chief justice himself have in some way endorsed the film or put their goodwill into promoting the film in their circle. It really made or did a lot for our film, even for audiences as they felt that, ‘wow, there’s merit in watching this film’. It really helped our film even get out further,” she said.

Rao, who assisted on films such as “Monsoon Wedding”, “Lagaan” and “Swades”, made her debut as a filmmaker with 2011’s “Dhobi Ghat”, featuring Aamir Khan, Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra. Asked if she wants the film to re-release in theatres, given the ongoing trend of old hits and classics returning to cinema halls, Rao said she wouldn’t mind it as she believes that audiences have opened to arthouse cinema today. “It would be lovely to see it again because when I made it and when it was released, it was a very different time. People were not very exposed to, in that sense, unusual arthouse cinema. So, what the audiences think of it now would be nice to see,” the filmmaker said.

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