Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies is India’s official entry for Oscars 2025

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies is India’s official entry for the Oscars 2025. The film was competing against titles like Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal, Kartik Aaryan’s Chandu Champion, Prabhas’s Kalki 2898 AD, the National Award-winning Malayalam film Aattam, Rajkummar Rao’s Shrikanth, and Vicky Kaushal’s Sam Bahadur, among others.
Co-produced by Aamir Khan, the film garnered attention for its unique narrative. Starring Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava and Ravi Kishan among others, Laapataa Ladies centred around two newlywed brides and their journeys. The film released earlier this year.
Recently, Kiran Rao had expressed her wish to have Laapataa Ladies as India’s official entry for the 2025 Academy Awards.
“My dream would be fulfilled if it was chosen to go to the Oscars,” Rao told PTI. “But it’s a process, and I’m hoping Laapataa Ladies will be considered. I’m sure the best film will be selected, whoever they choose in the scheme of things,” the director said.

In an earlier interview with PTI, Kiran Rao shared that the story of Laapataa Ladies came to her from her ex-husband Aamir Khan who had returned from a screenwriting competition he was judging.
“Aamir came home and told me a one-liner, about two girls on a train and how they get swapped. And I was hooked. I knew that this was not just a great story but also a great opportunity for me.
“Honestly, I could never have written a story like this myself. It’s not naturally my kind of story when I write but I felt I could bring something of myself to it,” she said.
Shot in a village in Madhya Pradesh, Laapataa Ladies is set in 2001 when mobile phones were still a luxury in rural areas. The film has actors Pratibha Ranta and Nitanshi Goel playing the brides and Sparsh Shrivastav is the hapless husband who ends up bringing home the wrong bride.