Producer-director Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies was a low-budget Indian film that made a remarkable impact in 2024, impressing audiences at the Indian box office, on OTT platforms, and at international film festivals.
Despite the absence of big Bollywood stars, Kiran Rao felt incredible when Laapataa Ladies surpassed Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal in viewership on OTT platform.
In an interview with ANI, Kiran Rao shared her excitement about Laapataa Ladies surpassing the viewership of Animal—one of 2023’s highest-grossing films—on Netflix after their 2024 debut. She called it a “real high,” acknowledging that while Animal was a massive hit in theatres, her film set new records on OTT.She said, “We beat their numbers. That was a real high because, honestly, it was such a big film (Ranbir starrer Animal). It had done such huge business. Our film broke a lot of that kind of records on OTT, which we could not do in the theatres.”
Kiran Rao, the producer of Peepli Live, shared her thought process behind Laapataa Ladies, acknowledging its limitations due to a small budget and the absence of big stars. However, she remained confident in the film’s content and placed her trust in her team, which ultimately led to its success.
“We stayed within a realistic daira (boundaries) because we knew we didn’t have stars. There was so much trust in what we wanted to make with both Aamir and Jyoti Deshmande from Jio. We were kind of very convinced of what we were doing. We were staying within a very manageable price bracket, and what we needed to therefore achieve in the box office, we achieved.”

Kiran continued, “It was for me an incredible time to see that a film that, you know, like you said, had no known faces could do so well with word of mouth, which purely because people were, you know, telling each other to go and see it.”
Kiran Rao, known for producing acclaimed films like Peepli Live, Talaash, and Secret Superstar, directed Laapataa Ladies. Released in 2024, the film featured debutants Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Sinha, along with Sparsh Shrivastava, known for Collar Bomb, in lead roles.
Laapataa Ladies is set in rural India in 2001 and follows the story of two young brides who get separated during a train journey. The plot unfolds as Kishan, a determined police officer, takes it upon himself to investigate their disappearance, leading to unexpected twists and discoveries.