Lapata Ladies, India’s official entry in the Best International Feature category at the 97th Academy Awards, has been knocked out of the Oscar race. , Photo Credit: T-Series/Youtube
‘Lapata Ladies’, India’s official entry in the Best International Feature category at the 97th Academy Awards, has been knocked out of the Oscar race.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced on Wednesday morning that the Hindi film directed by Kiran Rao is not part of the shortlist of 15 feature films vying to make the final five.
However, British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh”, starring Indian actors Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar, representing the UK, has made it to the shortlist, which also includes France’s “Emilia Perez”, “I Am Still Here” (Brazil). “Universal Language” (Canada), “Waves” (Czech Republic), “The Girl with the Needle” (Denmark), and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from Germany.
Other contenders are “Touch” (Iceland), “Kneecap” (Ireland), “Vermglio” (Italy), “Flo” (Latvia), “Armand” (Norway), “From Ground Zero” (Palestine), “Dahomey”. ” (Senegal), and “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” (Thailand).
According to the Academy, 85 countries or territories had submitted films that were eligible for consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards.
Read this also The Politics of Aesthetics: How ‘Missing Ladies’ Got a Chance at the Oscars
The film, titled “Lost Ladies” in English, is a gently subversive feminist drama set in rural India in the early 2000s. Sneha Desai wrote the screenplay and dialogues for “Missing Ladies” based on the story by Biplab Goswami. Divyanidi Sharma wrote additional dialogues.
“Missing Ladies” is the story of two brides who cross paths while traveling by train on their wedding day. In this, Nitanshi Goyal and Pratibha Ranta play the roles of brides Phool and Jaya respectively, while Sparsh Srivastava plays the role of a helpless groom in search of his wife.
The film, which had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), was released in theaters on March 1 and received rave reviews. It is backed by Rao’s Kindling Productions, Aamir Khan Productions and Jyoti Deshpande of Jio Studios.
In September, the Film Federation of India (FFI) unanimously selected “Missing Ladies” as India’s official entry to the Oscars from a list of 29 films, which also included Bollywood hit “Animals”, Malayalam National Award-winning “Attam” and Includes “all” Cannes winners. We imagine as light”.
At the time, the FFI’s 13-member all-male jury had sparked controversy on social media for its quotes about the film. Many people on social media said that this brief description contradicted the message the film was trying to convey.
The Federation’s citation states: “Indian women are a strange mixture of subordination and dominance. In a world of well-defined, powerful characters, Lapata Ladies (Hindi) captures this diversity perfectly, albeit in a semi-pleasant In the world and in a tongue-in-cheek way.”
The makers also released a new poster of the film with the English title “Lost Ladies” last month, as the film begins its campaign for the upcoming awards ceremony. It also stars Chhaya Kadam, Ravi Kishan and Geeta Aggarwal Sharma.
“Lagaan”, based on the pre-independence era, was the last Indian film to enter the top five nominations in the Best International Feature Film category (formerly called Best Foreign Film) at the Oscars 2002.
Earlier, only two other films had made it to the final five and they were Nargis-starrer “Mother India” and Mira Nair’s “Salaam Bombay!”
Last year, the peppy, foot-tapping chartbuster “Naatu Naatu” from SS Rajamouli’s Telugu period action film “RRR” had won the Academy Award in the Best Original Song category along with “The Elephant Whispers”, directed and produced by Karthik Gonsalves. Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment won the Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category.
Oscar nominations will be announced on January 17. Late night host and comedian Conan O’Brien will host the Academy Awards on March 2 at the Dolby Theater at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles.
published – December 18, 2024 01:23 am IST
