Kiran Rao’s “Lost Ladies” aims to challenge traditional narratives and bring Indian women’s stories to the forefront at the 2025 Oscars. The film marks a crucial moment in South Asian cinema, spotlighting underrepresented voices and empowering women through storytelling.
Despite Bollywood’s global popularity, the mammoth Hindi-language film industry has made barely a dent in the Academy Awards, with just 10 Indian Oscar wins since 1957. Kiran Rao hopes to change that with Lost Ladies, India’s official entry for Best International Film in 2025, which she says comes at a “special moment” for South Asian cinema, focusing on women’s stories. Only three Indian films have ever been nominated in this category, and none has won. The last entry to be nominated was the 2001 film Lagaan, where Rao was an assistant director, and the lead role was played by her ex-husband, Aamir Khan, who is also a producer of Lost Ladies.
“We’ve seen a lot more participation from Asia at the Oscars,” Rao told AFP in London, citing triumphs for South Korea’s Parasite and Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh’s Best Actress win for Everything Everywhere All at Once. However, South Asian films “haven’t seen as much in terms of representation at the Oscars.” Rao believes South Asian cinema has a wealth of stories and styles to offer the world.
Lost Ladies (“Laapataa Ladies” in Hindi) tells the story of two young women in rural India who are mistakenly swapped by their newlywed husbands while wearing similar face-covering veils. The film uses humor to explore how both women, and the families they accidentally join, navigate conservative norms and question their views on marriage and womanhood.
The film’s fresh take on a comedy-of-errors plot—a popular trope in Indian cinema—follows the women’s journey “not just toward getting back home, but toward finding themselves, their purpose, and their voice,” explained Rao.
While generating attention among Academy members, Rao also aims to use Lost Ladies for social outreach in rural India. Since its release, she has shown the film to “communities where women perhaps need new ideas, solutions, and encouragement” and where “women might not otherwise be able to go to cinemas.”
“Storytelling can open that little window of perception, change very old mindsets with just a small question or decision,” said Rao.
The film addresses patriarchal issues “in a way that’s gentle and inclusive and doesn’t necessarily pass judgment on women’s decisions or how they’ve chosen—or been forced—to live their lives,” she added.
While focusing on the challenges and pockets of hope for women in small-town India, the story “touches upon issues that affect women everywhere,” she said. “Issues of agency, identity, and women’s daily struggles and triumphs.”
Some of these struggles reflect Rao’s own life. “Despite being halfway across the world, we still find women underrepresented in most industries, especially in decision-making roles,” she said. Women directors have historically been overlooked at the Oscars, which has faced strong criticism over the last decade for its lack of diversity. Only three women have won the Best Director category, and less than two percent of all Oscar nominees have been women of color, according to research by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Journalism.
India’s Oscar entries for Best International Film have included fewer than a dozen women directors over the last seven decades. “I think women’s stories need to be seen more, and women directors need a lot more encouragement,” said Rao.
The selection of Lost Ladies comes as another Indian film - Payal Kapadia’s Malayalam-language All We Imagine as Light, about two nurses who forge an intergenerational friendship while working in Mumbai - won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. The UK’s entry for the same Oscar category, Santosh, is a Hindi drama by British-Indian director Sandhya Suri, about a widow who takes on her late husband’s role as a police constable in rural north India.
“It’s great that in this Oscar race, Britain is represented by Sandhya Suri, another woman of South Asian origin. Payal Kapadia will also be in the running after winning at Cannes,” said Rao. “It’s a special moment for women from India. Finally, our time has come, and I hope it’s the start of a wave of many more stories from India by women,” she said. “We’ve been quiet for far too long.”
With AFP
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