Throwback: When Nitanshi Goel confessed, “I just wanted to act and be on TV"

Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies has been officially selected as India's entry for the 2025 Oscars, as announced by the Film Federation of India on Monday, September 23.
In an exclusive chat with ETimes, 'Laapataa Ladies' actress Nitanshi Goel shared her overwhelming excitement about the news. She expressed, "It feels like a surreal dream. I'm beyond thrilled and over the moon with excitement.I’m so grateful to the Academy for recognizing our film. This is my debut, and to see it reach such international success feels like a dream come true. Just a few days ago, we were all hoping our film would get selected, and now, after seeing the news and getting a call about it, I was covered in goosebumps. It feels like God has answered our prayers. I just want your blessings.”

Earlier, while talking to Ranveer Allahbadia, Nitanshi opened up on her parents' sacrifice for her acting career. She said, “I just wanted to act and be on TV, and with just that little thought, my father left his business in Noida and he’s here doing a job. My mom left her government job and she’s here for me. All of this was just because I wanted to be an actor.”
Talking about studies, she said, “I gave the exams later. During the exam, a teacher came to me and said you’ve done such good work. The invigilator, who was there, said let her complete her exam then we all will get a chance to talk to her, click selfies with her, and tell her how good she was.’ As for her further academic plans, she added, “I’m now in class 12, studying commerce, and I’ll of course give the board exams, which will be next year”.
Kiran Rao's 'Laapataa Ladies', a light-hearted satire on patriarchy, has been selected to represent India in the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards.
It was chosen from a list of 29 films, including the Bollywood hit 'Animal', Malayalam National Award winner 'Aattam', and Cannes winner 'All We Imagine As Light'.

A 13-member selection committee, led by Assamese director Jahnu Barua, unanimously decided on Laapataa Ladies, which is produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao. Other notable films on the list included the Tamil film 'Maharaja', Telugu titles 'Kalki 2898 AD' and 'Hanu-Man', along with Hindi films 'Swatantraya Veer Savarkar' and 'Article 370'.
'Laapataa Ladies' also starred Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastav, Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam and Geeta Aggarwal Sharma in pivotal roles.