India chooses quirky comedy over Cannes winner for its Oscars pick

Laapataa Ladies was chosen despite All We Imagine as Light already winning international accolades

The industry body that chooses India’s Oscar entry each year is under fire for picking a Hindi-language comedy-drama over the country’s first Cannes Grand Prix winner.

The Film Federation of India (FFI) announced on Monday that Kiran Rao-directed Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies) had been selected as India’s official entry to the international feature category at the forthcoming 2025 Academy Awards.

The film follows the “misadventures of two young brides who get lost from the same train”.

“From mistaken identities to laugh-out-loud escapades, the ensuing chaos guarantees laughter galore and heartwarming moments,” according to its official synopsis on IMDb. The film stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan in lead roles.

Laapataa Ladies was chosen from among a list of 29 shortlisted films, which included two frontrunners – the National Award-winner Malayalam-language thriller Aattam and the Payal Kapadia-directed All We Imagine as Light, which was hailed for becoming the first Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at Cannes.

The 13-member selection committee said in a statement announcing their selection: “Indian women are a strange mixture of submission and dominance. Well-defined, powerful characters in one world, Laapataa Ladies (Hindi) captures this diversity perfectly, though in a semi-idyllic world and in a tongue-in-cheek way.

“It shows you that women can happily desire to be homemakers as well as rebel and be entrepreneurially inclined. A story that can simultaneously be seen as one that needs change, and one that can bring about change. Laapataa Ladies is a film that can engage, entertain and make sense not just to women in India but universally as well.”

Laapataa Ladies is India’s official entry to the international feature category at the Oscars (Jio Studios/Netflix)

However, reactions to the announcement were pointedly divided. While many lauded the FFI’s choice, more expressed their disappointment over All We Imagine as Light being overlooked. The critically acclaimed film premiered at the Cannes, was then nominated for best film at the Sydney Film Festival, and was also screened at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

All We Imagine as Light, with dialogue in several Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam, follows nurse Prabha and her roommate Anu as they navigate life in Mumbai city, and stars Indian actors Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, and Hridhu Haroon.

“This film is about friendship, about three very different women. Oftentimes, women are pitted against each other. This is the way our society is designed and it is really unfortunate. But for me friendship is a very important relationship because it can lead to greater solidarity, inclusivity and empathy,” Kapadia said, accepting the award in Cannes in May.

Several people pointed out that films that win big at Cannes often go on to dominate the awards circuit. In fact, 17 Grand Prix winners have gone on to earn 35 Oscar nominations, and seven films have won 10 awards. Last year’s Grand Prix winner, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, was nominated in the best film, best director, best adapted screenplay categories, and won awards for best sound and the best international feature film.

While Laapataa Ladies also opened to critical acclaim at TIFF in 2023, had a successful run at the Indian box office, and is now  available for streaming on Netflix, there has been more conversation around Payal Kapadia and her debut feature.

Not only was it the first film from India in three decades to compete at Cannes in the main competition, Kapadia herself is an source of interest within the film fraternity.

Payal Kapadia poses with the 'Grand Prix' Award for 'All We Imagine As Light' during the Palme D'Or Winners Photocall (WireImage)

Kapadia studied at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), the country’s premier institution for filmmaking aspirants. But she was disqualified from receiving grants and denied access to the scholarships for leading and participating in a students’ strike in 2015 against the proposed appointment of actor-turned-politician Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the institute.

Kapadia’s films have also performed very well on the festival circuit; her short film Afternoon Clouds was the only Indian film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and her documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing premiered at the Cannes in 2021, where it won the L’Œil d’or award for best documentary, and also won the Amplify Voices Award at the 2021 TIFF.

All We Imagine as Light in particular too has found itself distributors in the US, UK, France, and after a long wait, India, and is set to become one of the most theatrically distributed Indian indies of all time. The film, an international co-production involving companies from France, India, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Italy, also made it to the French Oscar shortlist and lost to Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, which also premiered at the Cannes and won the Jury Prize and the Best Actress prize for its ensemble cast of Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz.

Indian film critic Baradwaj Rangan said in a post on X: “Submitting a film for the Oscars is not just about the film being good but also whether the producers have the funds/desire/know-how/contacts to mount the hugely expensive Oscar campaign.”

He isn’t wrong. Indian producer Guneet Monga, who served as producer on Period. End of Sentence and The Elephant Whisperers, which won the Oscars in their categories in 2019 and 2023 respectively, broke down for The Indian Express what went into an Oscar campaign.

“To begin with, an Oscar campaign is intense, especially for people from other parts of the world. You have to put yourself out there, network, push your film. At the surface of it, you are hosting a screening, putting the word out there, hoping for more and more voters to watch your film.

“As you go deeper into it, there are many events that happen … Mostly it is a lot of press activity and have the press there cover us, have a larger conversation so we can garner more attention of the voters.”

“But at the centre of it, are your US distributors. They arrange all of this … Like, if you have a film doing the rounds of festivals for months and it is known it helps. But to enter last minute and then organise press is a very last-minute effort. So many films break out at Sundance, which happens in January, and then goes all the way to get a nomination in October. That’s why there is a role that film festivals play in discovery.”

All We Imagine as Light will be distributed in the US by Janus Films, which also distributed Oscar-winning Japanese drama Drive My Car (BFI)

Laapataa Ladies is produced by Jio Studios, owned by one of Asia’s richest people, billionaire Mukesh Ambani. Another producer is Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao’s husband and star of Lagaan, one of the three Indian films that managed to score an Oscar nomination. It is possible that the jury felt that Laapataa Ladies had both the creative and more pragmatic aspects of an Oscar covered, with Jio Studios providing the financial support and Aamir Khan providing the much-needed experience and know-how, having done this once already with Lagaan in 2002.

However, All We Imagine as Light is being distributed in the US by Janus Films, which also distributed the 2021 Japanese drama Drive My Car. Drive My Car won three awards including best screenplay at the Cannes that year, best foreign language film at the Golden Globe Awards, and most importantly, was nominated for four Oscars, including best picture, and, won in the  best international feature film. One could, as several on social media have, reasonably argue that Janus Films has both the funds and knowledge to mount a successful Oscars campaign.

After the backlash against the film’s selection, FFI President Ravi Kottakara clarified why the jury felt Laapataa Ladies was selected instead of All We Imagine as Light to ET Times.

“In the jury, everyone has to decide the film. The jury liked Laapataa Ladies, and felt that All We Imagine As Light is like a foreign film and not like Indian cinema.

“When they saw Laapataa Ladies, it represented the plight of the Indian woman. In the film, the women had to wear the goonghat, and because of that, all the misunderstandings occur. They felt that this is something that happens only in India.

“All We Imagine As Light is also a great film. The problem is, we had six or seven great films. It was a big fight among all these selections. It took three to four hours. They were all films on women…What it comes to say is that India is making great films. A lot of countries are doing great content and the selection becomes harder for these people. That is what’s most important.”