Kiran Rao, returned to direction 14 years after her debut, Dhobi Ghat (2010). Her latest directorial, Laapataa Ladies, was lapped up by the audience, but only when it released on Netflix India. It didn't get too many takes when it initially released in cinemas. In her recent interview, Kiran admitted that she considers the box office performance of Laapataa Ladies a failure.
In her own words, "In some ways, both these films (Dhobi Ghat and Laapataa Ladies) haven't done great at the box office. Dhobi Ghat, in fact, did some big business for its time. Ten-15 years later, Laapataa Ladies didn't do that much more than Dhobi Ghat. So, in some ways, I do feel that sense of failure. By box office metrics, we weren't a success. In the conventional sense, we didn't do hundreds of crores, or even ₹30, 40, 50 crore. Failure is the way to put it. I do feel responsible that the film didn't do that well at the box office,” Kiran said.
She also shared, "I do feel responsible that the film didn't do that well at the box office. I felt it a lot during Dhobi Ghat because we didn't have any alternate mediums, we didn't have OTT. So it didn't get a lot of audience. I do feel that film was different for its time, and very unusual for a theatrical release back then. But other than that, not really. I haven't felt a deep sense of having failed at something,” Kiran said.
Laapataa Ladies is a comedy drama film directed by Kiran Rao, and produced by Rao, Aamir Khan, and Jyoti Deshpande. It stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan, and tells the story of two young newly-wed brides who get exchanged during a train ride to their husband's homes. It explores women empowerment as undercurrent theme.