The Film Federation of India (FFI) on Monday confirmed that Kiran Rao-directorial Laapataa Ladies is India’s official entry for Oscars 2025. The film came on top amongst a group of 29 films including Prabhas’ Kalki 2898 AD, Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal, Kartik Aaryan’s Chandu Champion, Rajkummar Rao’s Srikanth, and Vicky Kaushal’s Sam Bahadur.
The National Award-winning Malayalam film Aatam and Cannes winner All We Imagine As Light, tamil films Maharaja, Vaazhai, and Thangalaan as well as Telugu film Hanu-Man and Hindi titles such as Swatantraya Veer Savarkar and Article 370 were also in the list. Hindi film Srikanth, Tamil movies Vaazhai and Thangalaan and Malayalam film Ullozhukku were among the top 5 films in the 29-title list.
The decision was taken unanimously in favour of Laapataa Ladies by a 13-member select committee headed by Assamese director Jahnu Barua. The film is produced by Amir Khan and Kiran Rao and is a comedy drama based in rural India on an inadvertent exchange of newly wed brides during a train journey.
Laapataa Ladies is that one film that has been making headlines for multiple reasons. The film had a successful run in the theaters and was a massive hit on the OTT platforms as well. But it has also encountered its fair share of controversies, veteran National Award winning filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan, had earlier alleged that the film was copied from his 1999 film Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol. Since the release of Laapataa Ladies, Ananth’s film, which was available on YouTube all this while had also been taken down.
The story is also reminiscent of Noukadoubi (The Wreck), a book written by Rabindranath Tagore which was based on aa shipwreck leading to the characters being stuck on an island. The book was made into a movie by Ramanand Sagar in 1960, with the title name of Ghunghat and a star cast of Asha Parekh, Bina Rai, Bharat Bhushan and Pradeep Kumar.