Filmmaker Kiran Rao is overjoyed to learn that her second directorial venture, Missing Ladies, has been selected as India’s official entry to the 2025 Academy Awards. Starring Nitanshi Goyal, Sparsh Shrivastava and Pratibha Ranta, the film is the story of two brides who get swapped during a train journey. Kiran recently highlighted the importance of humour in addressing ‘uncomfortable issues’ of women in films. The director expressed that no one wants to listen to lectures in cinema.
During her session, Take II: How Women Are Redefining Indian Cinema, at India Today Conclave 2024, Kiran Rao highlighted that she uses humour to discuss ‘uncomfortable’ issues of women in films.
Rao said, “We wanted to incorporate these issues into the story through humour because no one wants to listen to a lecture while going to the movies. I believe humour is one of the best ways to tackle even the most uncomfortable issues.”
Kiran Rao spoke about the need to make more women-centric films in our cinema. Rao stressed that filmmakers should focus on more women-centric films and they should invest more in female storytellers, female producers, actresses and women-directed projects. The Missing Ladies director further added that she wants to tell stories that revolve around interesting female characters.
Talking about her inspiration behind directing Missing Ladies, Kiran Rao opened up saying that the story is about two girls looking for freedom, opportunity and a voice that speaks to them. Rao further added that she felt the story had to be kept “rooted and organic” so that it would look believable and the audience would enjoy the film. The filmmaker said this was one of the main reasons why the audience responded positively to her latest directorial.
Kiran Rao further explained how casting new actors in Missing Ladies worked in her favour. Rao said that the audience did not recognise the new actors, which kept the attention of the movie-goers focused only on the world of the film.
Earlier, Kiran Rao had written a long note on Instagram when Missing Ladies was chosen as India’s official entry to the upcoming Academy Awards, Rao had said that she felt extremely honoured and very happy that her directorial was chosen to represent India at the Oscars.
Meanwhile, Aamir Khan expressed his feelings on the 2024 film being selected as India’s official entry to the prestigious awards. Aamir said that he is quite happy with the latest achievement and the superstar is proud of the team including his ex-wife Rao. The Laal Singh Chaddha actor also thanked the Film Federation of India’s selection committee for choosing his film.
The organisation’s 13-member committee, led by Assamese director Jahnu Barua, selected Kiran and Aamir’s film Missing Ladies as the official entry to the Oscars.
In a recent interview with India Today, Nitanshi Goyal, who plays Phool Kumari in the Kiran Rao directorial, revealed how they celebrated the film’s latest milestone. Nitanshi revealed that the team “had a small celebration in their WhatsApp group.
The 17-year-old star said that she waited for the director to confirm if her film had indeed been selected as India’s official entry for the Academy Awards. Nitashi further added that she couldn’t believe that Missing Ladies had reached this stage. After the confirmation, she had a “little dance party” in her room.
Co-produced by Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan, Missing Ladies will release on March 1, 2024.
Also read: When the team of Missing Ladies broke down in tears after watching Kiran Rao’s directorial for the first time; Aamir Khan said ‘It’s the best film…’
