Kiran Rao’s ‘Laapataa Ladies’ out of Oscars 2025 race, Shahana Goswami’s British-Indian film ‘Santosh’ still in the running

India’s official entry to the 97th Academy Awards, Laapataa Ladies, has been eliminated from the Oscar race. The film, directed by Kiran Rao, did not make the shortlist of 15 films competing for a spot in the final five nominees for the Best International Feature Film category, as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on Wednesday.

However, there is still hope for Indian cinema at the Oscars. Santosh, a British-Indian film starring Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar, has made it to the shortlist. Directed by Sandhya Suri, Santosh tells the story of a newly widowed housewife who inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a young girl’s murder.

The shortlist also includes films from France, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Palestine, Senegal, and Thailand. The final Oscar nominations will be announced on January 17, 2025.

Laapataa Ladies, a gentle social satire set in rural India, tells the story of two brides who get accidentally swapped on their wedding day. The film received critical acclaim and was India’s official entry to the Oscars, selected by a jury of the Film Federation of India.

In a recent interview, Aamir Khan had shared his excitement about the film’s potential. He acknowledged the immense pride and joy it would bring to the nation if Laapataa Ladies were to clinch the Academy Award.

“I am not quite sure how seriously to take a competition. But I would be really happy. It would create tremendous opportunity for the film to be seen by a lot more people because when a film wins an Oscar or Academy award, then people from around the world want to see what it’s like. So it opens a huge window of opportunity for a larger audience for a film,” he said.

He further elaborated on the impact such a win would have on the Indian film industry, stating, “More important than that, I think Indian are so film crazy and we have been dying to win an Academy Award for an Indian film which hasn’t happenedd till now. So the country would go ballistic. They’ll just go mad if we win. So just for the people of our country, I’d be very happy if we win the award.”

While Laapataa Ladies did not make the cut, India has had a strong presence at the Oscars in recent years. RRR won the Oscar for Best Original Song with Naatu Naatu, and The Elephant Whisperers took home the award for Best Documentary Short Film. Other Indian films that have previously made it to the final five nominations in the International Feature Film category include Mother India and Salaam Bombay.

The 97th Academy Awards will be held on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien.