Ravi Kishan, who played an intelligent police officer Shyam Manohar in Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies, shared his joy with news agency ANI as the film has been selected as India's official Oscar entry for 2025. Speaking to ANI, Ravi Kishan said, "I am very happy; I can't believe it. For the first time in my 34-year career, a film I worked in is going to the Oscars." FYI, Aamir Khan auditioned for Ravi Kishan's role in the film and he was keen on doing it. Earlier, in an interview with ANI, Kiran Rao opened up about the casting process and why he chose Ravi Kishan over Aamir Khan. Kiran Rao said, "Aamir loved the character and auditioned for it as well. But I felt that since he is a star, there would be more expectations from the character if he were to essay that role. Aamir was bringing a star baggage to the character. So, we wanted someone so fit for the role that you cannot make out what he does next. Ravi Kishan is amazing, I felt that there could not be a better Manohar than him."
Laapataa Ladies has been chosen as India's official entry in the Best Foreign Film Category for the Oscars 2025 by the Film Federation of India on Monday. Laapataa Ladies has been selected from all India entries of 12 Hindi films, 6 Tamil and 4 Malayalam films. The jury has been led by 13 members this year. The film was contending alongside 29 film including names such as Animal, Kill, Kalki 2898 AD, Srikanth, Chandu Champion, Joram, Maidaan, Sam Bahadur, Article 370, the Malayalam film Aattam, which won the National Award for Best Feature Film this year and Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, a Cannes winner.
Laapataa Ladies is directed by Kiran Rao and produced by Kiran Rao, Aamir Khan, Jyoti Deshpande. The film had a fresh bunch of faces. Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastav, Chhaya Kadam, Ravi Kishan featured in the film. Laapataa Ladies is based on an award-winning story by Biplab Goswami. Laapataa Ladies had a screening at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year.