Laapataa Ladies Selected as India’s Entry for 2025 Oscars in Foreign Film Category

New Delhi: On Monday, the Film Federation of India announced that Laapataa Ladies will represent India at the 2025 Oscars in the Foreign Film Category. Chairman Jahnu Barua revealed that this film was chosen from a competitive pool of nominations, which included 12 Hindi films, 6 Tamil films, and 4 Malayalam films. This year’s jury comprised 13 members who evaluated the submissions.

Laapataa Ladies faced stiff competition, contending against 29 films, including notable titles such as Animal, Kill, Kalki 2898 AD, Srikanth, Chandu Champion, Joram, Maidaan, Sam Bahadur, Article 370, and the Malayalam film Aattam, which won the National Award for Best Feature Film. Additionally, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, a Cannes winner, was also in the running.

Directed by Kiran Rao and produced by Rao alongside Aamir Khan and Jyoti Deshpande, Laapataa Ladies features a fresh cast, including Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastav, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan. The film is based on an acclaimed story by Biplab Goswami, with the screenplay and dialogue crafted by Sneha Desai and additional dialogues by Divyanidhi Sharma. The film had its screening at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year and debuted in Indian theaters on March 1. Although it didn’t achieve blockbuster success at the box office, it gained a significant following after its release on Netflix, earning praise from both critics and audiences.

Earlier this month, Kiran Rao shared an exciting update on social media, announcing that Laapataa Ladies will hit theaters in Japan starting October 4, 2024, under the distribution of Shochiku, expressing her gratitude with the message, “arigato gozaimasu.” The film addresses the constraints of patriarchal norms that often stifle women’s dreams and aspirations within the confines of domestic life.