Shahana Goswami on Laapataa Ladies' exit from Oscars: It's still a big win

Shahana Goswami discusses the significance of Laapataa Ladies' journey despite not advancing in the Oscars race, highlighting the ongoing debates around India's film selection for the awards.

In Short

• Laapataa Ladies didn't make the Oscars shortlist, Santosh did
• There has been debate over India's film choices for Oscars ever since
• Actor Shahana Goswami, who plays the lead role in Santosh, commented on the selection process

Social media has been ablaze ever since the Academy announced the shortlisted films moving ahead in the Oscars race. While Laapataa Ladies, which was India’s official entry, did not make the cut, the Hindi-language film Santosh, representing the UK, has advanced in the competition. This has led to debates over the choice of films India submits for the Oscars every year. Actor Shahana Goswami, who plays the titular role in the Sandhya Suri film, spoke exclusively to India Today Digital, reacting to the noise surrounding Laapataa Ladies' exit.

The actor was asked about the conversation around the Film Federation of India's decision to choose the Kiran Rao directorial over Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, which has been winning international accolades. She said, "Honestly, I don't know the procedure of how films are chosen. I think it's the NFDC (National Film Development Corporation) that decides, but I don't know what's the criteria or even the application process. Hence, I don't think I can comment on the process of selecting an official entry."

Discussing the social media noise, the actor said that it's part of parcel of how we are as humans, where we need to comment on everything. "When the film was chosen as India's selection, everyone was so happy. Also, I think Laapataa Ladies has done superbly well. It may have been a slow burn in theatres but when it was released on OTT, it just flew. I haven't watched it yet but from what I know it deals with various themes and topics with an element of humour. I think all these conversations are just a commentary of the media and people."

Shahana Goswami added that if Laapataa Ladies had made the cut and Santosh didn't, the conversations would have been different. "The winds would have changed. But the fact is that these things are so intangible. If someone asks me to break why Santosh was shortlisted, we wouldn't know. However, we are all just grateful that we moved a step ahead. But it doesn't take away from other people's journeys. Another short film, Anuja, is shortlisted, so just the fact South Asian women and their body of work are being represented and talked about globally is an achievement. Although we don't need one platform to validate our work when something like this happens, it's amazing. More so, because more people will now watch our films. Hence, it's still a big win for Laapataa Ladies to have come so far."

The actor also thanked the Academy members for watching her film and voting for it. She added how many reached out to the team about how much they loved the film. Shahana added that coming this far is a victory in itself but she believes that Santosh can go ahead and even win an Oscars.