Kiran Rao, Director Of India’s Oscar Entry ‘Lost Ladies’, Talks Awards Race & The 13-Year Journey To Making Her Second Film

deadline.com:

Thirteen years after making her debut feature, Kiran Rao marked her directorial return with Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies), which has been selected as India‘s Oscar entry for the Best International Feature Film race. “It felt a bit like cycling, after not having cycled for a while,” Rao tells Deadline about helming her second feature film after more than a decade. “It takes a little while to find your balance, but soon you’re on your way.

I had a crew that was not just young and enthusiastic, but also really driven by the film and deeply believed in what we were trying to do.” Lost Ladies follows two brides whose lives become entangled after a late night mix-up on a train, which leads to a series of misadventures where the two brides encounter oddball characters with unexpectedconsequences. “On the surface, it is a story of mistaken identity, but it is also a story that deeply questions patriarchy, and all the constructs that women have to navigate in their everyday lives,” says Rao. “There was great potential in this script not just to entertain, but to spark many conversations that I am deeply invested in, through the lens of comedic satire, about women’s freedoms, gender roles and the importance of education.” Making films with fresh faces Lost Ladies first started out as a story titled 2 Brides, written by Biplab Goswami.

Aamir Khan, one of Lost Ladies‘ producers, had come across the screenplay while judging entries for a screenwriters’ lab. Khan felt that the story would be a good fit for Rao to direct. “He really liked the story and when he gave it to me to develop, he allowed me to do with it what I wanted,” says Rao. “When we rewrote it and came back to him, I said that I wanted to do it with no [major]