Entertainment: After Natu, Natu, RRR wins the CCA’s Best Foreign Language Film award
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Act film director SS Rajamouli’s latest magnum opus, “RRR” continued its winning streak as the global blockbuster won two trophies within days — the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Song for Naatu, Naatu — at the Critics Choice Awards (CCA), the media reported on Monday.
RRR is an acronym for the Telugu words Roudram Ranam Rudhiram, roughly translated as “Fierce, Death, Blood,” or the original title’s alliteration, Rise, Roar, Revolt.
The original Telugu blockbuster, spearheaded by actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR, was nominated in five categories at the CCA— Best Picture, Best Director (Rajamouli), Best Foreign Language film, Best Visual Effects (V. Srinivas Mohan) and Best Song (Naatu Naatu).
In the Best Foreign Language Film, “RRR” competed against films such as “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Argentina 1985,” “Bardo,” “False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” “Close”, and “Decision to Leave,” the media reported.
“RRR” is a pre-Independence fictional story focusing on two real-life Indian revolutionaries in the 1920s — Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem.
The foot-tapping dance number from the film Naatu Naatu, which won the “Best Original Song-Motion Picture” at the Golden Globes last week, was nominated for the CCA alongside “Carolina” (Where the Crawdads Sing), “Ciao Papa” (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), “Hold My Hand” (Top Gun: Maverick), “Lift Me Up” (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and “New Body Rhumba” (White Noise).
The track has been composed by veteran music director MM Keeravaani and voiced by singers Kala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj.
Filmed on Ram Charan and Jr NTR, Naatu Naatu translates to bucolic in Telugu and demonstrates the spirit of fun in country music over 4.35 breathless minutes of song and dance. Choreographed by Prem Rakshith, it has legions of followers still trying to master its magnificent but unbelievable steps.
The film also features in the Oscars shortlist announced last month. Last week, the movie made it to the BAFTA longlist for the ‘film, not in the English language’ category.
