Was Laapataa Ladies, India¡¯s ¡®wrong¡¯ pick for Oscars 2025? Hansal Mehta and Ricky Kej question selection body

The list of shortlisted movies for the Oscars 2025 is out and India¡¯s official entry to the 97th Academy Awards - Laapataa Ladies has been left out. The Kiran Rao directorial was a controversial pick ever since its selection by the Film Federation of India considering Payal Kapadia¡¯s All We Imagine as Light was arguably a better choice this year. The conversation has been reignited after Laapataa Ladies failed to make the cut.

Ricky Kej thinks India can win Oscars every year if the selection body is wise

In a long note on his X handle, the three-time Grammy winner asserted that he loved Laapataa Ladies and watched it twice with his friends but it was absolutely the wrong choice to represent India in the International Feature Film category.

¡°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 category every year! Unfortunately, we live in a "Mainstream Bollywood" bubble, where we cannot look beyond films that we ourselves find entertaining,¡± he said.

I re-iterate. Laapataa Ladies is a good film, well made, I myself found it engaging and entertaining.. handing subject matter well.. I even watched it a second time with friends. It is a film which fits well within the Indian mainstream.. and there is nothing wrong with that. But¡­

¡ª Ricky Kej (@rickykej) December 18, 2024

Kej said that FFI should look out for filmmakers who are uncompromising in their art even with low budget or no stars and just great artistic cinema. He then attached posters of Laapataa Ladies and wrote, ¡°I am sure most academy voting members dismissed the film just by looking at these.¡±

Hansal Mehta blames the FFI¡¯s choice of films

The Scoop director took to his X handle and wrote, ¡°Film Federation of India does it again! Their strike rate and selection of films year after year is impeccable.¡± In another tweet, Hansal spoke about the remaining hopes of India at the Oscars (Santosh and Anuja) and is hopeful the academy would select and award some of the best in the business.

Film Federation of India does it again! Their strike rate and selection of films year after year is impeccable. pic.twitter.com/hiwmatzDbW

¡ª Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) December 17, 2024

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