Laapataa Ladies Trumps Box Office Hits, Cannes And National Award Winner To Enter Oscars 2025 Race

Oscars 2025: Kiran Rao's directorial Laapataa Ladies has been picked as India's official entry for Oscars 2025, the Film Federation of India announced on Monday. The rural-set, light-hearted comedy satire beat 29 other movies that were submitted for consideration for India's submission at the 97th Academy Awards in the Best International Film Category. However, Laapataa Ladies is not an Oscar nominee. It will compete with films from countries around the world to make it to the coveted list of 5 films that are in the final running for an Academy Award.

Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies reigns above box office hits  

Laapataa Ladies minted ₹20.08 crore during its box office run earlier this year in March. However, it received critical acclaim from all quarters. Headlined by a relatively new cast of Sparsh Shrivastava, Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Ranta, the movie also became one of the most-watched titles on Netflix after its digital premiere.

Notably, Laapataa Ladies big beat box office hits to emerge on top. It was selected over Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal and Nag Ashwin's Kalki 2898 AD. Both these movies did business of over ₹1000 crore worldwide. Prashanth Varma's HanuMan, which was one of the highest-grossing Telugu films last year, was also submitted to FFi for consideration.

Laapataa Ladies leaves behind Aattam and All We Imagine As Light

Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, which won the Cannes Grand Prix in May 2024 was also submitted to the FFI. Malayalam National Award winner Aattam, Rajkummar Rao's Srikanth, Yami Gautam Article 370, Randeep Hooda 's Swatantraya Veer Savarkar were other critics' favourite this year that failed to make the cut. The 13-member select committee headed by Assamese director Jahnu Barua "unanimously" decided on Laapataa Ladies, produced by Aamir Khan and Rao, for reckoning in the best international film category at the Academy Awards.

Tamil movies Maharaja, Vaazhai and Thangalaan and Malayalam film Ullozhukku were among the 29-title list.