Kangana Ranaut Makes Strong Allegations Against Oscars; Says ‘Joh Voh Pick Karta Hai Is Anti-India’

After Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan's Laapataa Ladies could not make it to the Oscars shortlist, there has been a lot of ongoing debates and talk about it. Recently, Kangana Ranaut, who is gearing up for the upcoming political drama Emergency, criticised the film choices of the Oscars. She said that films which portray India as a ‘s**thole’ are often selected by the Academy Awards. She stated that whatever they chose was anti-India. Here is what Kangana said in her recent statement: 

In an interview with Times Now, Kangana said “Usually, the agenda they push for India is very different. Jo Oscar pick karta hai is anti-India. Abhi bhi jo film praise garner kar rahi hai (even now, the film that is garnering praise), I was very excited about it. I heard the director say, in India, you don’t have the freedom to love the way you want to love because of religious intolerance. I haven’t even seen the film. For the Oscars, it has to be a film that makes the country look bad. Slumdog Millionaire, etc. It always has to be a film that makes the country look like a s**thole.”

“Emergency is not that film. The West is ready to see how India stands today. I have never cared about these awards. I don’t care about Indian awards or Western awards. It is a film that’s brilliantly made, and it is as good as any international film. But at the same time, I know how geopolitics works. We, as nationalist people, don’t have much hope with these award functions,” the actress added. 

Laapataa Ladies failed to make a place in the shortlist for the Oscars 2025 in the Best International Feature category. The shortlist was announced on December 17. In September 2024, it became the official entry to the 97th Academy Awards. However, Brazil’s I'm Still Here, Canada’s Universal Language, Czech Republic’s  Waves, Denmark’s The Girl with the Needle,  France’s Emilia Pérez, Germany’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Iceland’s Touch.