Kiran Rao’s directional Laapataa Ladies git selected for India’s official Oscar 2025 entry. For the entire country as well as the actors and directors, this declaration represents a tremendous accomplishment. Since the movie is headed to the Oscars, Aamir Khan has publicly stated that he is “so proud of Kiran Rao and her entire team” and that “hard work has paid off.”
Aamir Khan quoted in an official statement, “We are all so happy with the news. I am so proud of Kiran and her entire team. I would like to thank the selection committee of the Film Federation of India, which chose our film to represent India at the Oscars. My heartfelt gratitude to our audience, our media, and the entire film fraternity, for all the love and support they have given Laapata Ladies. Thanks to both Jio and Netflix who have been great partners to work with. I am so happy that all our hard-work has paid off. Thank you everyone Here’s hoping that Laapata Ladies is able to win the hearts of the members of the Academy.”
At a special ceremony held in Chennai, a 13-member committee of The Film Federation of India, led by Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua, selected the Aamir-backed movie as the official submission for the 97th Academy Awards. The film is slated to compete in the category of Best Foreign Film.
Notably, the coveted list featured the names of films such as Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Aattam, the winner of the Malayalam National Award, All We Imagine As Light, the winner of the Cannes Film Festival, Maharaja, Telugu films Kalki 2898 AD, and Hanu-Man. Yami Gautam’s Article 370 and Randeep Hooda’s Swatantraya Veer Savarkar were other contenders on the list.
Laapataa Ladies is Kiran Rao’s second film as director, following the 2010 release of Dhobi Ghat. With Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Srivastava, and Nitanshi Goel playing the key characters with Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam, Satendra Soni, and Durgesh Kumar, the movie showcased new potential to the industry.