The Aamir Khan-produced film Laapataa Ladies, renamed Lost Ladies for international audiences, has been eliminated from the Oscars 2025 race. The film, directed by Kiran Rao, was India's official submission for the Best International Feature category.However, when the Academy announced its shortlist on Tuesday, Laapataa Ladies was not among the selected films.

Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej was one of the first to react to the news, taking to X (formerly Twitter) to share his thoughts. While praising Laapataa Ladies as “well-made and entertaining,” Kej referred to it as “the wrong choice” to represent India at the Oscars. He wrote, “The Oscars shortlist is out. Laapataa Ladies is a very well-made, entertaining film (I enjoyed it), but it was absolutely the wrong pick to represent India in the Best International Feature Film category. As expected, it lost. When will we realize... year after year... we are choosing the wrong films? There are so many outstanding movies being made, and we should be winning the International Feature Film category every year!”

Kej also criticized India’s tendency to focus on mainstream Bollywood films for international recognition. He remarked, “Sadly, we exist in a ‘Mainstream Bollywood’ bubble, where we often fail to look beyond films that we find entertaining. Instead, we should focus on exceptional films created by uncompromising filmmakers—whether they are low-budget or high-budget, with stars or without—just pure artistic cinema.” He also suggested that even the film’s poster might have influenced Academy voters, preventing it from receiving the recognition it deserved.

Out of 85 eligible countries and regions, 15 films advanced to the next round of voting for the Oscars. While Laapataa Ladies did not make the shortlist, Santosh, a Hindi-language film from the United Kingdom, was included.

Laapataa Ladies was selected as India’s entry from a pool of 29 films, which included Bollywood blockbuster Animal, Malayalam National Award-winner Aattam, and Cannes-winner All We Imagine As Light. Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao had actively promoted the film in the U.S. through special screenings.

Meanwhile, All We Imagine As Light continues to shine during the international awards season, earning nominations at the 2025 Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.