On September 23rd, 2024, The Film Federation of India announced Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies as India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Film category at the 97th Academy Awards. While the news left the nation in joy and a celebratory mood, a citation ruled out by FF1 has left a certain section of society disappointed. The internet is abuzz about the thought behind the selection committee.
While you can find the entire citation in the image attached below, its opening line has made the internet scratch its head. It reads, “Indian women are a strange mixture of submission and dominance.” While some hearing this broke into laughter, others wondered if that came from the lens of a male-led selection committee. An angry user opined, “You can’t make this s**t up.”
One person wrote, “It is a crazy opening for a jury citation.” The third said, “Film Federation of India needs to fire whoever writes these descriptions.” Someone also called it wide with another commenting, “This is the most outrageous citation I have ever seen. And this is happening when you are sending a film for an OSCAR.” The sixth person joked, “‘Strange mixture’? Really!!?? That’s the best you could come up with as an opening line.”
This was not it, the internet dug up several side-by-side examples including footage and videos to call out the jury for diverting the achievement to an opinion. Making this phenomenon even more controversial was the committee being led by men. The members include – Mr. Jahnu Barua, Mr. Manjunatha S., Mr. Santhosh Raman, Mr. Subbiah Nallamuthu, Mr. Ravi Jadhav, Mr. G. P. Vijayakumar, Mr. Avinash U. Shetty, Mr. Bobby Bedi, Mr. Umamaheshwar Rao, Mr. Bhargav Purohit, Mr. Praveen KL, Mr. Longinus Fernandes, and Mr. D. Yuvaraj.
While there might be some harsh opinions and controversy on FFI’s choice of words, the cinema lovers are largely looking at the positive side where a story of women, written by women and for women has made its way to the Oscars. Directed by Kiran Rao and produced by Aamir Khan, Laapataa Ladies holds a lot of hope to make it to the nomination list scheduled to be announced on January 17, 2025.
ALSO READ: OPINION: Laapataa Ladies’ entry in Oscars 2025 is a revolution— of rural tales, feminism in cinema, agency and independence
