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Sohum Shah on Laapataa Ladies' exit from Academy Awards race: Oscar is not a parameter to tell how a film should be made
Sohum Shah opines on the matter of Laapataa Ladies not being shortlisted for Oscars 2025, and whether All We Imagine As Light would have been a better choice
The ouster of Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies from the Oscar race, gave rise to a debate online over the decision of the Film Federation of India (FFI). Filmmaker Hansal Mehta and musician Ricky Kej were amongst the people who called out FFI for its decision making process.
Actor-filmmaker Sohum Shah, whose 2018 film Tumbbad was a frontrunner for India’s entry to Oscars, but wasn’t selected eventually, personally doesn’t care about the whole matter. “Oscar is not a parameter to tell how a film should be made. It is not something to be so desperate and focused about. It’s an award function which has its own rhythm, their own kind of films they choose. Aur har Oscar mein chuni film hi mahaan film nahi hoti hai, uske alawa bhi achi filmein hoti hain. What matters to me is that the audience that we have made the film for, has it reached to them or not,” he says.
Sohum added, “What matters to me is that the audience that we have made the film for, has it reached to them or not. Tumbbad not going to Oscar doesn’t matter to me as much as it becoming the top grossing re-release does. That award is bigger for me. I am not a fan of the Oscars.” Tumbbad was re-released this September and earned over ₹25 crores, making history for a re-release.
Many people thought All We Imagine As Light, which won at Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated at Golden Globe Awards 2025, along with garnering international acclaim and awards would have been a better choice over Laapataa Ladies. Giving his two cents on the issue, Sohum says: “It’s a subjective thing and the jury would have decided as per their sensibilities. They like Laapataa Ladies, so they sent that. It’s not that big a matter to ponder upon.”
