Will Kiran Rao-directed ‘Laapataa Ladies’ ‘super-success’ prove to be a ‘B’day Gift’ for star-producer Aamir Khan ? by Chaitanya Padukone

It was so delightful to meet and informally converse with unassuming producer (superstar) Aamir Khan and his (ex-wife ) talented film director Kiran Rao as they welcomed the film news media.

By Chaitanya Padukone 25 Jan 2024 in Latest News

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It was so delightful to meet and informally converse with unassuming producer (superstar) Aamir Khan and his (ex-wife ) talented film director Kiran Rao as they welcomed the film news media. This was at at the preview screening of their upcoming drama-comedy-thriller movie ‘Laapataa Ladies’( presented by Jio Studios) at LightBox’s preview theatre. The ‘ageless’ Aamir almost blushed when I complimented him for being the ‘Young Sasurji’ of his smart fitness-guru daamaad Nupur. Shikhare

Unanimously, everyone who was invited for the preview ( including this senior film journalist) showered sincere taareef-pey-taareef after watching the trailer ‘twice’ and said that they were waiting to watch the movie Laapataa Ladies’ releasing in theatres on Friday, March 1^st. Set against a ‘period’ backdrop of the year 2001, somewhere in rural North India in a fictitious region called ‘Nirmal Pradesh’ the movie ‘Laapataa Ladies’ co-produced by Jyoti Deshpande, is about the hilarious adventures of two young newly-wed brides who go missing ( laapataa) from the same train. By accidental error, the ‘ghunghat-ki-aadd-sey-dulhaniya’, realize that they are hitched to the wrong bridegroom family. The crazy chaos that follows, is both funny and moving; and sparks an unexpected series of funny engaging events-situations . Which also leads the ‘ladies’ into a journey of immense self-discovery; womanhood and exploring the quirky reality of life itself

Interestingly the ‘Laapataa Ladies’ trailer will be attached to the theatrical prints of director Siddharth Anand’s aerial action drama patriotic mega-movie Fighter ( releasing this Thursday) which stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor.

Director Kiran Rao seems maha-thrilled to return to ‘direction’ after a long gap pf 13 years. It may be recalled that Kiran had directed movie ‘Dhobhi Ghat’ (2010) which had (producer) Aamir Khan also acting in the lead cast. In ‘Laapataa Ladies’ movie, popular actor Ravi Kishan ( yes, the Bhojpuri superstar) plays a senior police officer with his tongue-in-cheek swag, who is approached to investigate into the missing-brides adlaa-badli case. But the rest of the primary lead cast is relatively new faces but with star-material potential. Speaking to me, director Kiran Rao said, “Except for top star Ravi Kishan-jee, our movie ‘Laapataa Ladies’ basically required new faces with maybe some little previous acting experience. We had to audition and screen-test a large number of aspiring newcomer girls and boys across India. Ultimately we then finalized and cast talented actors Praitibha Ranta ( as ‘Jaya’ ), Nitanshi Goel ( as ‘Phool’), and Sparsh Shrivastava (as ‘Deepak’). Our movie is content-driven, characters-driven with roller-coaster funny situations. We were told that this merry mix-up of missing brides or identity confusion has happened so many times, “ discloses Kiran who is delighted with the excellent reactions and applause they got for ‘Laapataa Ladies’ screening at the recent prestigious (Canadian) Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF-Sept 2023). The highly entertaining ( award-winning) story of ‘Laapataa...' is written by Biplab Goswami and the screenplay by Sneha Desai.

Enthuses producer Aamir, “ I am especially proud of Kiran and her re-emergence as a mainstream movie-director of ‘Laapataa Ladies, after a long gap of over a decade. The movie has amazing entertaining humor-drama content backed by melodious folksy music by Ram Sampath and songs by top playback singers, we are anticipating a great response when our movie releases on March 1^,smiles Aamir.

Now that the comedy-drama-thriller-musical movie ‘Laapataa Ladies.’ is carrying such great trailer-preview responses the movie ( releasing on March 1^st) is expected to be a mega-hit with the masses. Will this be a special B’Day Gift for producer Aamir Khan whose birthday falls on March 14^th? When I personally asked Aamir this question, while he was leaving, he smiled and profusely thanked me for the advance compliments.