It has happened. RRR song ‘Naatu Naatu’ has created history by winning an Oscar for Best Original Song. The SS Rajamouli film became the first Indian production to win an Oscar. Previously, many Indians, including costume designer Bhanu Athaiya (for Gandhi) and composer AR Rahman (for Slumdog Millionaire), have won the Academy Award statuette, but for British or American productions (though Gandhi was a joint Indian and British production). RRR, featuring Ram Charan and Jr NTR in lead roles, thus created history. Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, and Olivia Morris were also in the film’s cast.
But how did RRR enter categories that a typical Indian film production does not?
What was RRR all about?
RRR follows two real-life revolutionaries who took on the might of the British Empire in the early 20th century. Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao) join forces in 1920 to fight the colonialists. The film’s title, RRR, stands for “Roudram Ranam Rudhiram” which means “Revolt, Battle, Bloodshed” in Telugu.
How RRR became a phenomenon?
Rajamouli has always been an expert at crafting cinematic set pieces. We saw that ability play a big part in the Baahubali movies. He is extremely careful about the technical aspects of his films. That done, he creates sequences that may not follow logic, and they are not meant to, but are wildly entertaining once you surrender your faculties to the film. He makes no pretence of creating action that follows the laws of physics or any such thing. He delivers crazy, outlandish, gravity and logic-defying spectacle that you have to enjoy on his own terms. RRR is the most Rajamouli-ish Rajamouli has ever been. In India, the film was quite a big hit, but we have seen such big, masala-stuffed films before, though nothing on that scale.
The rest of the world? They hadn’t. And the movie being available on Netflix made sure the commitment to watch the admittedly fairly long movie wasn’t that big. And they simply fell under the spell cast by Rajamouli. As per author and Doctor Strange co-screenwriter C. Robert Cargill said RRR “is a level of spectacle that defies description.”
As the world danced to the tunes of ‘Naatu Naatu’ for the better part of last year, it became increasingly clear to many that the film, and particularly its song, had awards potential, and could even win the biggest cinema honour of them all: an Oscar. The film had been a huge success when it was released in India. The presence of Hindi film stars Devgn and Bhatt made sure that RRR, like Rajamouli’s own Baahubali movies, truly became a pan-Indian film.
