FFI jury head Jahnu Baruaa addresses Laapataa Ladies' Oscars exit, calls All We Imagine As Light technically ‘very poor’

In an interview with Hindustan Times, FFI jury head Jahnu Barua defended the decision to pick Laapataa Ladies as India’s official entry for Oscar 2025.

The news of Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies failing to make it to the shortlist of the Best International Feature category of Oscars 2025 has sparked a heated debate on social media, with filmmaker Hansal Mehta and musician Ricky Kej calling out the Film Federation of India (FFI) for their decision. Now, FFI jury head Jahnu Barua has spoken on it, describing the hate as "unfortunate and uncalled for".

Laapataa Ladies was India's official Oscar entry over All We Imagine as Light.

Jahnu headed the 13-member committee that took the unanimous decision and picked Laapataa Ladies. However, Laapataa Ladies couldn’t enter the big race for the golden statuette as it failed to make it to the shortlist. Now, in an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Jahnu spoke about the backlash.

Jahnu reacts to the backlash

On Wednesday, Hansal and composer Ricky Kej led the wave of criticism against FFI, echoing that Laapataa Ladies was the wrong choice to represent India.

“That is very uncalled for actually. Why should people say such things? It is very unfortunate. People should try to accept it as the jury’s decision. I have had many of my films go to many competitions, at some places they were awarded and at some places they failed to win. That doesn’t mean I should have a negative review of that process... We should be respectful towards the process,” he tells us.

While Jahnu refused to comment on the factors that cut short the journey of Kiran’s film, he said people should not put the blame on the jury. Instead, he asserted that they should try to understand the reason why they picked the film in the first place.

“People need to understand that it was a democratic process that one has to go through. And the country needs to accept whatever the verdict is,” he shares.

Jahnu defends the jury

In the interview, he also came forward to defend the jury for their decision by listing the reasons why the film got picked.

“The jury felt that the films which have gone to the Oscars in the last few years lacked Indian-ness. A film needs to represent the nation. We felt that Laapataa Ladies had all the right elements, and presented the social chaos we go through brilliantly,” he says.

There was a section of society who felt Payal Kapadia's film All We Imagine as Light could have been a better pick.

“The jury felt that her film was very poor technically,” he ended, sticking to their decision.