As Laapataa Ladies was announced as India's official entry for the Oscars 2025, the cast and crew of the film wasted no time in celebrating the big news. The star cast along with director Kiran Rao had their own special celebration-one that took place in a private WhatsApp group chat. In an exclusive interview with NDTV's Hardika Gupta, Nitanshi Goel, who plays the role of Phool in the film, shared the details of how the team reacted to the big announcement. "We all (Kiran Rao, Sparsh Srivastava, Pratibha Ranta, and other co-stars) had a little celebration in our closed WhatsApp group chat. All of us sent some dancing party emojis. We had a little celebration right there," she said.
Opening up about her acting debut in such a critically acclaimed film, Nitanshi said, "Every actor's debut film is very special. Every time we achieved something, I felt thankfulness. I'm really, really thankful to Kiran ma'am, Aamir sir, and the audience for giving us the wings to fly-not just in India but internationally-and giving us so much love. I'm just grateful. Laapataa Ladies is reaching such beautiful milestones. My character Phool has received immense love. In fact, people from the industry have been very kind to me. The way they have showered all of the praises in my DMs, they told me that they loved my performance-it has been beautiful."
Looking ahead, Nitanshi Goel shared her dreams of reaching the Oscars stage: "If selected, we want to dance our way to the Oscars-dancing and doing balle balle moves. But I would like to say that everyone please pray and give us all the blessings kyuki jab hum nominate ho hi chuke hai toh trophy bhi vaapis India le aaye (since we are nominated, we hope to bring the trophy back to India)."
ICYDK, Laapataa Ladies is based on an award-winning story by Biplab Goswami, with the screenplay and dialogues written by Sneha Desai and Divyanidhi Sharma. The film also stars Sparsh Srivastava, Pratibha Ranta and Ravi Kishan among others in key roles.
The deadline for submissions for the 96th Academy Awards is November 14, 2024. The shortlist for Best International Feature will be announced on December 17, with the final nominations revealed on January 17, 2025. The Oscars ceremony is scheduled to take place on March 2, 2025.