Exclusive: Kiran Rao On The Importance Of Subtitles And Dubbing For Films: "It Helps Us Travel To Other Cultures"

Kiran Rao is overjoyed after her film Laapataa Ladies became India's official entry for Oscars 25 in the Best International Feature Film category. The movie tells the story of two young brides who get swapped during a train journey. After the film's Oscar entry, Kiran Rao spoke to NDTV on Monday. Kiran was asked about the importance of subtitles and dubbing to expand the global reach of Indian cinema. The filmmaker responded, “Yes, (it is) very important to have our films travel with good subtitles that actually can get the colloquial beauty of some of our dialogues, the humour in dialect. So, great subtitling really helps us travel to other cultures. Our film will be releasing in Japan in October. So, it just speaks to the fact that the content, if it is good, well subtitled and culturally marketed, the film can travel everywhere.”

On Monday, in another chat with NDTV, Kiran Rao spoke about her 3 favourite sequences from Laapataa Ladies. She said, "I think the last scene for me is very very special because it is actually the coming together of two girls (Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Ranta). You don't see them together for most of the film. That is one of my favourite scenes." 

Speaking about her second favourite scene, the director added, “Night time scene of dinner of all the women together. It was a very cold night and we lit a fire. It was lovely to shoot and it actually had so much of women's sisterhood.”

“The third I would have to say is Manju Maai (Chaaya Kadam) in her tea stall and all the stuff that goes on between Manju Maai and Phool (Nitanshi Goel),” Kiran Rao said. 

Kiran Rao made her directorial comeback with Laapataa Ladies after a gap of 13 years. Her last film as a director was Dhobi Ghat. Released in 2011, the movie featured Prateik Babbar and Monica Dogra in key roles.

Coming back to Laapataa Ladies, the movie has been headlined by Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta and Sparsh Shrivastav. The film has been jointly bankrolled by Jio Studios, Aamir Khan Productions and Kindling Pictures.