Ever since Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies was sent to the Oscars as India’s official entry, many have said that the Film Federation of India made a mistake. Now, Guneet Monga, the Oscar-winning producer, said that it’s important for films with US distribution to be sent as entries.
Laapataa Ladies was competing against Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which was the first Indian film in decades to be selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It ended up winning the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
In a new interview with Mid-Day, Monga said the FFI chooses what they think is the best film as opposed to picking one that might actually get nominated. No Indian film has been nominated at the Oscars since Lagaan in 2001. But, while Laapataa Ladies doesn’t have an American distribution, All We Imagine As Light, will be distributed in the US by Janus Films.
She said, “I say this to everybody, if India has to choose a film for the Oscars, it’s very important that you have an American distributor. The more solid American distributor you have, your journey there becomes easier. We can do it on our own, of course. We can spend loads of money, hire publicists… It’s very hard. Even Elephant Whisperers, I was there for over a month… I’m in awe of the big system that they’ve built there, the whole world shows up and puts their money, time, and energy into it.”
When it was mentioned that Lagaan is the last Indian film to be nominated, she said, “Because Sony Pictures Classics distributed it. We miss this point. To every person, and to every journalist, I want to say, ‘Please send films that have US distributors.’ Netflix was there on Period. End of Sentence, and Elephant Whisperers. They have the mechanism, they know the work… HBO came on board for Shaunak Sen’s film, All that Breathes, and they were running the campaign. What I’m trying to say is, nominations are a very, very big deal. To win is out of a dream. The toughest part of the Oscars is to go from shortlist to nomination. There is work that needs to be done, which we don’t understand. The committee here constantly feels that we should send our best film, as if they are giving the award. But you have to send a film that has American distribution, period. It’s an American award.”
In a recent interview, FFI President Ravi Kottakara defended the decision to select Laapataa Ladies as India’s official entry to Oscars, saying that All We Imagine As Light felt like a ‘foreign film.’ Meanwhile, All We Imagine As Light will release in India in November.
See Also: Laapataa Ladies Star Sparsh Shrivastava Addresses Criticism Of Film’s Oscar Selection Over All We Imagine As Light
