Explained: How Rajamouli’s RRR blew away the competition at the 2023 Oscars?

RRR’s song “Naatu Naatu” won an Oscar for Best Original Song and was the first Indian production to win an Oscar. Starring Ram Charan and Jr. NTR, as well as Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody and Olivia Morris, RRR made history for Indian cinema after Slumdog Millionaire.

The plot of “RRR” revolves around two real revolutionaries who fought against the British Empire in the early 20th century. The film’s title, “RRR,” stands for “Roudram Ranam Rudhiram,” which means “revolt, struggle, bloodshed” in Telugu.

Why did RRR win the Oscar?

Rajamouli has always been acclaimed for delivering wacky, offbeat, gravity-defying, logic-defying cinematic extravaganzas. In India the movie was quite a big hit but we’ve seen such big masala stuffed movies before but nothing like “RRR”.

But this on-screen magic also appealed to international audiences on another level. West has rarely experienced the craft of filmmaking, which follows no logic and is filled with entertainment. And the film, being available on Netflix, ensured that there wasn’t that much of a commitment to watching the admittedly lengthy film. And they just fell under the spell of Rajamouli. According to Doctor Strange writer and co-writer C. Robert Cargill, RRR is “a spectacle that defies description.”

As the world nearly danced to the tunes of “Naatu Naatu” over the past year, it was becoming increasingly clear to many that the film, and its song in particular, had the potential to win awards and even win the biggest cinema award of all: an Oscar. The film had been a huge hit when it was released in India. The presence of Hindi film stars Devgn and Bhatt ensured that ‘RRR’, like Rajamouli’s own ‘Baahubali’ films, was truly a pan-Indian film.

American distributor Variance Films and Rajamouli submitted the film to the Oscars in 14 categories in the “For Your Consideration” campaign. Variance Films had complete confidence in the film’s chances, making RRR an unlikely hope for the main Oscars. ‘RRR’ was also promoted to win the Oscar statuette in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Ajay Devgn), Best Supporting Actress (Alia Bhatt), Writing, Score, Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Production Design, VFX and other categories.
“RRR” was released on March 4, 2022.