Laapataa Ladies' Oscar Run Ends: Ricky Kej Says Aamir Khan-Backed Film 'Wrong Choice' To Represent India
Laapataa Ladies is out of the Oscars 2025 race. The film was directed by Kiran Rao and backed by Aamir Khan.
Aamir Khan-produced Laapataa Ladies is out of the Oscar 2025 race. The film, directed by Kiran Rao, was India’s official submission for the Best International Feature category. On Tuesday, The Academy announced the films shortlisted in the category and Laapataa Ladies (name changed to Lost Ladies for the international audience) did not make the cut. Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej is one of the first people to react to the snub. He took to X and shared that Laapataa Ladies was the ‘wrong choice’ to represent India at the prestigious awards show.
“So, the @TheAcademy Oscars shortlist is out. #LaapataaLadies is a very well made, entertaining movie (I enjoyed it), but was absolutely the wrong choice to represent India for the best #InternationalFeatureFilm category. As expected, it lost. When are we going to realize.. year after year.. we are choosing the wrong films. There are so many excellent movies made, and we should be winning the #InternationalFeatureFilm category every year!" Ricky said.
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“Unfortunately we live in a “Mainstream Bollywood" bubble, where we cannot look beyond films that we ourselves find entertaining. Instead we should just look for good films made by film-makers who are uncompromising in their art.. low budget or big budget.. star or no star.. just great artistic cinema. Below is the poster of #LaapataaLadies, I am sure most academy voting members dismissed the film just by looking at these," he shared.
So, the @TheAcademy Oscars shortlist is out. #LaapataaLadies is a very well made, entertaining movie (I enjoyed it), but was absolutely the wrong choice to represent India for the best #InternationalFeatureFilm category. As expected, it lost. When are we going to realize.. year… pic.twitter.com/iWGpSXY1KD— Ricky Kej (@rickykej) December 18, 2024
Out of the 85 countries and regions eligible, 15 international films advanced to the next round of voting in the highly competitive category. While Laapataa Ladies was not among them, Santosh, a Hindi-language film from the United Kingdom, made it to the shortlist.
Laapataa Ladies was chosen among 29 films, including Bollywood hit Animal, Malayalam National Award winner Aattam and Cannes winner All We Imagine As Light. Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao have been actively campaigning for the film in the US. They have held a few special screenings.
Meanwhile, All We Imagine As Light has been ruling the international awards season. The film has already bagged nominations at the Golden Globe Awards 2025 and Critics Choice Awards 2025.
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