Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel calls RRR a ‘Bollywood movie,’ upset fans say ‘It’s Indian cinema, not…’

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel's slip-up during his monologue did not go unnoticed by enraged Indian fans of RRR, who took to social media to point out the host's mistake.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted this year's Oscars. (Photo: AP)

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The late night show host Jimmy Kimmel, who was hosting Oscars for the third time, enraged a section of Indian fans and especially fans of the SS Rajamouli movie RRR when he called RRR a ‘Bollywood movie’ in his opening monologue. Netizens were quick to point out that that was not the case, as RRR is a Telugu-language Indian film. The movie had been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category, and it finally ended up winning the prize as composer MM Keeravani and lyricist Chandrabose took to the stage to thank everyone.

However, fans of RRR were not happy with Kimmel labelling the feature as a Bollywood film, and many of them took to the internet to make their displeasure known. One user commented, “RRR is South Indian cinema, a Telugu film, Tollywood. Not Bollywood, as some Oscars ppl might be saying!” As another person tweeted out, “India has different film industries for different languages…Bollywood means Hindi language film industry…since Hindi is the most spoken language in India Bollywood is more popular..RRR is a Telugu language film from south part of India (sic).”

Ooh… #Oscars just love controversies and conflicts. Referring to #RRR as a Bollywood film even after hearing that the creators are promoting it as an Indian film for months.

— उज्जल | UJJAL (@beujjal) March 13, 2023

India has different film industries for different languages…bollywood means hindi language film industry…since hindi is the most spoken language in india bollywood is more popular..rrr is a telugu language film from south part of india

— gulabi gutthu (@united_TFI_fan) March 13, 2023

RRR is South Indian cinema, a Telagu film, Tollywood. Not Bollywood, as some Oscars ppl might be saying!

— Preeti Chhibber (@runwithskizzers) March 12, 2023

Another cinephile wrote down “Ooh… #Oscars just love controversies and conflicts. Referring to #RRR as a Bollywood film even after hearing that the creators are promoting it as an Indian film for months.” It is factually correct that the RRR team, including director Rajamouli, has many a times referred to RRR as a Telugu language film, so that there remained no confusion about which Indian industry did the film actually came from.

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Oscars 2023 LIVE UPDATES: SS Rajamouli jumps in excitement as Naatu Naatu wins Best Original Song, Ram Charan and Jr NTR hug each other. Watch

Meanwhile, Bollywood star Deepika Padukone was one of the Oscar presenters at the ceremony, and she introduced the performance of RRR song ‘Naatu Naatu’ during the prestigious event. An overwhelmed and happy Deepika announced the next act to lots of hooting and cheers from the audience.

Besides ‘Naatu Naatu,’ other Indian contenders at the Oscars this year was Shaunak Sen’s documentary feature All That Breathes, which had to bow out of the Oscars race, and the Kartiki Gonsalves-directed documentary short The Elephant Whisperers, which walked away with the golden statuette in the category.

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