‘Laapataa Ladies’ Oscars 2025 citation goes viral

The citation to rule Bollywood filmmaker Kiran Rao’s “Laapataa Ladies” India’s entry for the Oscars 2025 has gone viral on social media.

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A day earlier, the Film Federation of India (FFI) revealed that the movie will be the country’s pick for the Best Foreign Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

While several celebrated the news, the citation by FFI caused controversy as social media users found a certain line offensive to women and expressed disappointment over the lack of a female member in the selection committee.

The opening line of the citation went viral on social media which reads, “Indian women are a strange mixture of submission and dominance.”

Several social media users suggested that the line came from a male-led selection committee as a user opined, “You can’t make this s**t up.”

Another wrote, “It is a crazy opening for a jury citation.” A third user said, “Film Federation of India needs to fire whoever writes these descriptions.”

Reacting to the citation for ‘Laapataa Ladies’ for the Oscars 2025, a user called it outrageous.

“This is the most outrageous citation I have ever seen. And this is happening when you are sending a film for an OSCAR,” the user wrote.

It is worth mentioning here that the 13-member selection committee of the Film Federation of India, headed by Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua, unanimously picked the critically acclaimed film among 29 strong contenders, including the ‘Animal’, ‘Aattam’, ‘All We Imagine As Light’, ‘Maharaja’, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, ‘Hanu-Man’, ‘Swatantrya Veer Savarkar‘ and ‘Article 370’.

Kiran Rao’s comedy-drama starring Bollywood actors Nitanshi Goel, Sparsh Shrivastava, Pratibha Ranta and Ravi Kishan, follows a heartwarming yet empowering tale of two brides, who accidentally get swapped during a train journey after their weddings.

The title promotes the idea of gender equality in the rural areas of India along with the importance of women’s education and empowerment.