In the Laapataa Ladies’ Oscars citation, FFI came under fire for referring to Indian women as a “strange mixture of submission and dominance.”

News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee / 24th September 2024

On Monday, Kiran Rao’s highly regarded movie Laapataa Ladies was chosen as India’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards. Laapataa Ladies, the official Oscar entry for India, joined a distinguished group of films, including Lagaan and Mother India, which went on to receive nominations for the esteemed prizes. The Film Federation of India made the choice, but many fans and social media users took issue with a line in its citation for the feminist movie.

For many years, the responsibility of choosing India’s official Oscar entry has rested with the private organization known as the Film Federation of India (FFI). Indian women are a peculiar blend of submission and dominance, according to the federation, which shared their citation with the world on Monday when it announced that Laapataa Ladies had been chosen. Though in a tongue-in-cheek and semi-idyll world, LAAPATAA LADIES (Hindi) effectively depicts this diversity with well-defined, powerful characters in one planet. It demonstrates that women can rebel and have an entrepreneurial bent in addition to contentedly wanting to be stay-at-home moms. A narrative that is both capable of bringing about change and one that requires it. Laapataa Ladies (Hindi) is an entertaining and engaging movie.

Fans took issue with the citation’s first paragraph, which refers to Indian women as “a strange mixture of submission and dominance.” Following the citation’s social media dissemination, a user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, It’s a terrible assertion. Total catastrophe One person commented, “That submission note is sooo badly written,” on a Reddit post that discussed the citation. That note might be written far better by a semi-competent schoolchild.

The irony that the citation for a movie discussing women’s rights reads so patriarchal and backward itself made many giggle. On Reddit, someone made the joke, “Dude who came up with “weird blend of submission and domination” has definitely never had a girlfriend in his life.”

Many others brought attention to several other mistakes, such as spelling and grammar problems, after the citation became viral for all the wrong reasons. One person commented, “Cannot comprehend that the first word itself is spelled wrong lol.” “They should’ve just used ChatGPT,” said a second.