When AR Rahman brought home two Academy Awards back in 2009 for Slumdog Millionaire, though it was exalted by most Indians, a few claimed that the album was not Rahman's best and that it didn't deserve an Oscar. A sense of deja vu seeped in when MM Keeravani won the Oscar for RRR's Naatu Naatu (Best Original Song). Again many proclaimed Keeravani has delivered much better work than Naatu Naatu. And now, claims are doing the round that SS Rajamouli and team spent a whopping Rs 80 crore for their Oscar campaign and have 'bought' the prestigious award. "It is a big joke that we can buy an Oscar if we give money," said SS Karthikeya, son of Rajamouli, who spearheaded the Oscar campaign for RRR, has now responded to naysayers. In an interview with Gallata Plus, Karthikeya said, "With a 95-year history, it is an institution. Everything there is done according to a process. I can only say one thing: can we buy the love of the fans? We can't buy the words of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron about the movie, can we?" SS Karthikeya also addressed another rumour that the team spend enormous about of money for getting seats at the Oscar ceremony. He admitted that a few seats were indeed bought by the team as the Academy only provides limited seats to the nominees. However, he said the rumoured amount for the tickets is untrue. He said, "Other than those who are in the nomination and invited by the committee, one has to buy the Oscar tickets. And not anybody can buy them. For this, the nominees should send an email to the Oscar committee. Also, there are different types of classes. Keeravaani emailed Oscar for our family, and after checking everything, they replied to the mail and sent a link. So, we bought each ticket for $1,500. That is the lower level. We spent another $750 for four people to sit on the top and watch." Karthikeya said that they started the whole campaign for the film in the West after seeing the reception the film got there not just from the diaspora, but also from the natives. RRR has so far received an Oscar for Best Original song, a Golden Globe for the same, and many other international awards like the Best Director award from New York Film Critics Circle.
