‘Laapataa Ladies’ Not Right Choice For Oscars, Says Academy Award-Winner Guneet Monga

Bhubaneswar: Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga is not happy with the selection of Kiran Rao’s ‘Laapataa Ladies’ for the 2025 Academy Awards.

According to Monga, ‘Laapataa Ladies’ lacks the “key element” required to win an Academy Award.

“The biggest mistake the Film Federation of India (FFI) makes is choosing what they feel is the best film, rather than one that has a real chance at scoring a nomination,” Monga told Mid-Day.

Monga believes ‘All We Imagine As Light’ would have been a better choice for the Oscars as ‘Laapataa Ladies’ doesn’t have international acclaim despite doing well domestically.

“I say this to everybody, if India has to choose a film for the Oscars, it’s very important that you have an American distributor. The more solid the distributor, the easier the journey,” said Monga, producer of the 2023 Academy Award-winning documentary short film The Elephant Whisperers.

“Nominations are a very, very big deal. To win is out of a dream. The toughest part of the Oscars is going from the shortlist to the nomination,” she added.

Directed by Payal Kapadia, ‘All We Imagine As Light’ won the prestigious Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival 2024. The film also won accolades at Sydney Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival.

FFI president Ravi Kottakara defended the decision of the selection committee and said that ‘All We Imagine As Light’ felt like a “foreign film” to them.

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