Kiran Rao beams with pride as 'Laapataa Ladies' makes historic Oscars journey

Kiran Rao is reflecting on Lost Ladies journey to Oscars as her film passes off as India’s official entry for best international film at the 97th Academy Awards.

During an exclusive interview with The Independent, Rao explained that the film was introduced to her by her former husband, actor and producer Aamir Khan.

Describing the film’s seamless journey from starting out as a script, and later on becoming India’s official entry to the Oscars, the journalist couldn’t stop singing praises of the starrer.

She told the outlet in a heartfelt confession, “The original script by Biplab actually had a lot of the bones of what finally made it to the film.

“And the idea of the swap was, of course, central to how the story played out. And that in itself was very exciting to me because it’s a journey film, and they give you a lot of potential to develop adventures along the way, revelations that the journey can throw up, the growth in the characters as they progress through that journey.”

The Indian film producer and screenwriter didn’t hesitate to give credit to Goswami’s incredible writing, referring to it as a “great place to start building very interesting characters.”

It was the 51-year-old, who first came up with the concept of introducing the audience to a comedic, more satirical treatment of the idea of two brides ending up in different households.

She said of the theme, “The idea of the two brides getting swapped because of a confusion with the veil is funny, but it was also a great way to satirise and then address a lot of the themes I wanted to layer into the screenplay.”

The film initially came out on March 1, earlier this year, after being screened at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023.