Laapataa Ladies Finds Its Pataa: Selected as India's Official Entry for the 2025 Oscars

The Film Federation of India announced in Chennai on Monday that Kiran Rao's film Laapataa Ladies has been selected as India's official entry for the 2025 Oscars. 

This Hindi movie, a light-hearted satire on patriarchy, was picked from a list of 29 films. Other contenders included Animal starring Ranbir Kapoor, Malayalam National Award-winner Aattam, and Cannes-winner All We Imagine As Light.

Laapta Ladies Nominated for Oscar

The 97th Academy Awards (2025) have selected "Laapataa Ladies," a Hindi comedy film directed by Kiran Rao and produced by Amir Khan and Kiran Rao, as India's official entry for the International Feature Film Category. 

The movie is about two young brides who, while traveling by train, end up at their husbands' houses. The movie is a satire on the patriarchal society in India and emphasizes women's empowerment and gender equality in rural areas. In important roles are Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam, and Sparsh Shrivastava.

The official India entry for the 96th Academy Award (2024) was the hugely successful Malayalam film "2018: Everyone's a Hero," which came out last year.

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Indian Films at Oscar

With the nomination of Laapataa Ladies, a total of 57 Indian films have been nominated in the 'International Feature Film' category at the Oscars. The first Indian movie to receive an Oscar nomination was Mehboob Khan's Mother India in the year 1957.

So far, only three Indian films have made it to the final list of Oscar nominees in this category: Mother India (1958), Salaam Bombay (1989), and Lagaan (2001).

However, no Indian film has ever won the award for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars.

List of Indians Who Won Oscar

Ten Indians have received Oscars thus far; the first was Bhanu Athaiya, who took home the prize in 1982 for the best costume design in the 'Gandhi' movie, and the last was won by Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga for their short documentary film 'Elephant Whisperers'.

 A.R. Rahman is the only Indian who has won an Oscar Award twice. 

The 97th Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles, California, on March 2, 2025.

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