Laapataa Ladies' Sneha Desai reacts to criticism on film's selection over All We Imagine As Light for Oscars | Exclusive

Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light was the first film from India to compete in the main competition since 1994 and won the Grand Prix award at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. However, Laapataa Ladies beat All We Imagine As Light to become India's official entry for Oscars 2025. 

However, this decision from FFI to select Laapataa Ladies over All We Imagine as Light for India's official entry for Oscars 2025 garnered criticism from a section of society and some of the netizens called it 'stupidity' on Twitter. Now, in an exclusive conversation with DNA, Sneha Desai, Laapataa Ladies' writer, has reacted to the criticism around the decision of FFI. 

Talking about Laapataa Ladies being criticised for being selected as India's official entry for Oscars 2025 over All We Imagine As Light, Sneha Desai said, "Well, I have not seen the film but it has won the Grand Prix at Cannes and it’s a great feat to have won that. So I am in no position to comment on the quality of the film but I am sure it is wonderful. We know that we were in a wonderful company of some great films and we are competitors and partners in this process of filmmaking so I don’t see a controversy over there. Had they been chosen over us I would have been equally happy. It’s about bringing Oscar home if at all and whosoever does it is fine."

Laapataa Ladies is a light-hearted satire on patriarchy, directed by Kiran Rao, and produced by Aamir Khan and Jyoti Deshpande. The film stars Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan and is India's official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, or the Oscars 2025. The film was released in theatres in March 2024 but despite positive reviews became a box office dud. However, it became a huge hit when released on OTT. It is available to watch on Netflix.

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