Oscars 2023: SS Rajamouli’s RRR ignored in Best Picture category

SS Rajamouli's RRR did not receive a nomination in the Best Picture category. This culminates an elaborate awards campaign that director SS Rajamouli had fronted in the US over the last several months.

SS Rajamouli's RRR did not score a nomination at the 95th Academy Awards.

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After a months-long awards campaign, director SS Rajamouli’s historical epic RRR has managed to score only one nomination at the 95th Academy Awards. It was expected that the film will receive a nomination in the Best Picture category but the film walked away with only one nomination for Best Original Song. The nominations for the Oscars were announced Tuesday evening by actor Allison Williams and actor-rapper-producer Riz Ahmed.

The films nominated in the Best Picture category include All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere AllAt Once, The Fabelmans, Tar, Top Gun Maverick, Triangle of Sadness and Women Talking.

And the nominees for Best Picture are… #Oscars #Oscars95 pic.twitter.com/0aNqCj0Tl2

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 24, 2023

A Best Picture nomination was considered a long-shot for RRR, which was consistently gaining steam during the awards season, but interest in the Indian film appeared to be limited to the technical and music categories. It wasn’t nominated at the Producers Guild Awards and the Directors Guild Awards, both of which are considered important predictors for Oscar success. Among RRR’s most notable honours in the US are a Best Director award for Rajamouli at the New York Film Critics Circle honours, a Best Original Song award at the Golden Globes, two honours at the Critics Choice Awards, and it was also included in the National Board of Review’s list of the year’s top 10 films.

Also Read | Chhello Show snubbed at the 95th Academy Awards

RRR wasn’t chosen as India’s official entry in the Best International Feature category, which came as a surprise to its legions of fans, who believed it was a lock. The Gujarati film Chhello Show was chosen instead.

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While no Indian movie has been nominated in the Best Picture category in the history of the Oscars, Indian filmmakers and crew members have been honoured with nominations and awards over the years. Three Indian movies — Mehboob Khan’s Mother India, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan — have been nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category in the past. The first Indian ever to win an Oscar was costume designer Bhanu Athaiya. In 1992, legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray was given an honorary Oscar. The last time India tasted success at the Oscars was over a decade ago, when Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire swept the awards and won composer AR Rahman, lyricist Gulzar and sound designer Resul Pookootty their Academy Awards. Indian director Ismail Merchant has three Best Picture nominations and one Best Short Film nomination to his credit.

The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 13 (IST), and the ceremony will be hosted for the third time by comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

Click for more updates and latest Hollywood News along with Bollywood and Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the World at The Indian Express.

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