She swapped to conquer

India's Oscar entry, Laapataa Ladies, is a crowd favourite too. But for Sneha Desai, the film's writer, the buzzisa surprise anda chance to branch out and break free

- Urvee Modwel

Three minutes after she left director Kiran Rao's house where she, Rao and producer Tanaji Dasgupta were discussing a film project, writer Sneha Desai finally checked her phone that had been on silent during the meeting.

Her phone showed missed calls from so many people, she thought it was an emergency.

It was September 23.

"It was such a wide array of people reaching out, it didn't add up. I checked the texts (there were many of those too) and that's when I saw the news about Laapataa Ladies being selected as India's official entry to the Oscars 2025," she says. "I called Tanaji and asked, 'Is this true?' He said, 'We also just got to know!' We were all screaming in delight." Desai, 42, is the writer of Laapataa Ladies (2023) a madcap but unexpectedly heartwarming tale of newlywed brides who get mistakenly swapped at a small-town train station. Desai has also written the 2024 courtroom drama, Maharaj, based on an 1862 libel trial involving the criticism of the social practices of the era. She didn't go to screenwriting school. She's worked as a Gujaratistage actor and only took up writing for television after her son Kavit was born in 2010.