'RRR' Made History at the Oscars

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RRR, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, is set in 1920s colonial India. The film is in Telugu, and follows two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), centering on their fictional friendship and their campaign against British colonialism.

At the 2023 Golden Globes, the high energy "Naatu Naatu" song from the film, which features Raju and Bheem singing and dancing, beat Taylor Swift and Rihanna in the Best Original Song category.

"I did not guess there would be this kind of response for this song, even in my dreams," composer M.M. Keeravani, who co-wrote "Naatu Naatu" the number with lyricist Chandrabose, told Variety ahead of the Globes. "But as a paradoxical statement, it’s a dream coming true." Keeravani, looking shocked, accepted the award.

Director Rajamouli added of the song, "When I envisioned the ‘Naatu Naatu’ song, while both of them [the actor] are great dancers, I didn’t want the steps to be so complicated that people can’t do it. It should be like any two people—whether it be friends, mother and daughter, father and son, two brothers or two sisters—would see it and feel like, ‘Let’s try this.’ And they did; millions and millions of people were trying to do the steps and posting on it. It became such a big phenomenon when we released the song, and it clearly (increased) public interest in the film."

At the Critics Choice Awards, RRR won best foreign language film and "Naatu Naatu" again won best song. At the 2023 Oscars, "Naatu Naatu" won Best Original Song, in a category with Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Dianne Warren. It became the first Telugu song to win, and RRR became the first Indian feature film to win in a category that is not Best International Film.

If you want to know what all the "Naatu Naatu" hype is about this awards season, watch RRR. Here's how:

How to watch RRR:

The three hour Indian film is streaming in Hindi on Netflix, and is described as "a fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in this epic saga set in pre-independent India."

Watch on Netflix

If you want to watch RRR in its original language, Telugu, or in Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam (all with English subtitles), you can stream it on ZEE5 Global, a platform focused on South Asian content.

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