Laapataa Ladies out of Oscars race, UK's Santosh in longlist

India's official entry for the Best International Feature Category at the 97th Academy Awards, Kiran Rao's 2023 comedy-drama Laapataa Ladies, fell out of the Oscars race on Wednesday as it failed to make the longlist of 15 films eventually considered for the final five nominations.

- Anuradha Vellat

NEW DELHI:

However, Santosh, a Hindi-language crime drama from British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri and featuring Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar, found a spot in the final 15 as the official entry from the UK.

India has won seven Oscars so far, including Best Original Song in 2023 for RRR (MM Keeravani and Chandrabose), but has never won in the Best International Feature Film category. India's official submissions have only made it to the Oscars longlist four times. The list includes Pan Nalin's Last Film Show (2022), Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan (2002), Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1958).