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Journalism of Courage
Continuing its winning streak after the Golden Globe award in January this year, Director SS Rajamouli’s hit Telugu film ‘RRR’ made history yet again at the Oscars, with its energetic song ‘Naatu Naatu’ becoming the second song by an Indian to win the Best Original Song award. The award was first won by Indian musicians when composer AR Rahman and lyricist Gulzar received it for ‘Jai Ho’ from 2009’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, a film by British director Danny Boyle.
Composer MM Keeravani and lyricist Chandrabose received the award for the song sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava on Sunday (March 13). Keeravani riffed on the song ‘Top of the World’ by The Carpenters, changing the lyrics to say, “There was only one wish on my mind, so was Rajamouli’s and my family’s, ‘RRR’ has to win, pride of every Indian and must put me on top of the world.”
Only minutes earlier Sipligunj and Bhairava had performed the song with dancers who recreated the steps of actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR from the film. Actress Deepika Padukone, who also presented an award at the ceremony, introduced the performance by saying, “An irresistibly-catch chorus, electrifying beats and killer dance moves to match have made this next song a global sensation,” which drew loud cheers from the audience at the ceremony.
Some of the other nominees in the category were Rihanna’s anthemic’ Lift Me Up’ from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, Lady Gaga’s ‘Hold My Hand’ from ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘This Is Life’ from the most nominated film of the night, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ by Japanese American singer-songwriter Mitski and Talking Heads’ David Byrne.
‘RRR’ director SS Rajamouli has also made the Baahubali films, which started the pan-Indian movie trend. ‘RRR’ is an action drama of epic proportions. Set in 1920, it tells a fictionalised story of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitharama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR). Even though the two never actually met, the film is centred around their friendship and how they overcome the odds during the freedom struggle.
‘Naatu Naatu’ comes at a pivotal point in the film: the two heroes are at a party hosted by the British elite and decide to show the British what ‘real dancing’ is all about. It is an assertion of their pride as Indians, and as some white people at the party enthusiastically take to the song, it is also an indication of how the tide is turning against the strictly enforced sense of superiority that the British had enforced on their colonial subjects.
According to Rajamouli, the idea for ‘RRR’ came to him when he read about the lives of Sitharama Raju (who fought against the British Raj) and Bheem (who fought against the Nizam of Hyderabad).
“When I read about Alluri Sitharama Raju and Komaram Bheem, it was exciting to know that their story is similar. They never met each other. What if they had met? What if they had got inspired by each other? That is what ‘RRR’ is about. It is completely fictitious. The film is mounted on a very large scale. We had to do a lot of research for it. To know costumes, their dialect, their way of living and that is why it took so much time for us to get this together,” he said at a 2019 press meet.
Similarities included the fact that both the Telugu revolutionaries led tribal people, though Bheem was a tribal man himself, belonging to the Gond community, while Raju was not. Both also died young, but not before aiding the struggle against colonialism. Rajamouli added, “’RRR’ is about the legends but before they become legends”.
Actor Jr NTR said, “The impact is that India will know about Telugu heroes – Alluri Sitharama Raju and Komaram Bheem”. He added, “Now, we are just imagining the possibilities of them meeting each other at some point.”
Rajamouli further said that the script for the film was inspired by ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ (2004), the biopic of Argentine Marxist revolutionary leader Che Guevara, which is set in the period before he became famous. “The idea was mine. I saw ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’. In the end, they reveal that the character in the film is not some guy but Che Guevara. That idea stuck with me. I also got fascinated with the idea that what if we narrate the entire story and reveal at the end who the two actually become in the future. The thought was planted by the film,” Rajamouli said.
‘Naatu Naatu’ is easily one of the tunes that defined 2022, globally. Its choreography went viral on various social media platforms, as people across the world tried to emulate the steps and energy of the original. Particularly, its virality on TikTok is considered a major reason for the film’s success in the American market.
“I did not guess there would be this kind of response for this song, even in my dreams,” its composer Keeravani told Variety. “But as a paradoxical statement, it’s a dream coming true.” It has been reported that he wrote 20 different songs for Rajamouli to choose from, just for the dance-off sequence.
Keeravani added, “The ‘Naatu Naatu’ song has to make you forget everything — and not just the viewer who is watching the movie, but the characters from the story, too, need to forget every other thing happening around them and pay their full attention towards the song. And the coda, the end part of the song, consists of so much stamina, you cannot call it merely a song — it is an action sequence.”
After winning the Golden Globe, the song’s lyricist Chandrabose told ANI, “It’s a big deal for me… I wrote 90% of the song within half a day and the rest 10% took 1.7 years. My effort, hard work and patience have paid off.”
Earlier, Keeravani had described the song as something that tests “the endurance and stamina” of the dancers. Jr NTR similarly joked about how Rajamouli had ‘tortured’ the dancers for days. “We shot that song for 12 days, and this man would torture us from 8-8, we would sleep at 11:30, and wake up at 5:30. This happened after 7 days of rehearsals. He was so hell-bent on synchronisation, watching on the monitor if the legs and hands went together, and I was like ‘Jesus, why are you doing this?’” he said.
The song is composed by Keeravani. He is the cousin of director Rajamouli, and also composed songs for the Baahubali series. Keeravani has composed songs across Indian languages and has previously won a National Award for the same. His Hindi compositions include ‘Tum mile dil khile’ (‘Criminal’, 1995) and ‘Gali mein aaj chand nikla’ in Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Zakhm’ (1998).
Those speaking Tamil and Malayalam may know him as Margatha Mani, the name under which he is credited in the two industries.
Kanukuntla Subhash Chandrabose, better known as Chandrabose, is a lyricist who majorly works in the Telugu film industry. He debuted as a lyricist in 1995 with the Telugu film ‘Taj Mahal’, and since then has written lyrics for more than three thousand songs. Before this, he had tried his hand at singing but later shifted to songwriting.
He is known for using simple colloquial Telugu words in his songs, making them more accessible and memorable for listeners. Apart from international recognition, Chandrabose has won the Nandi Awards (film awards by the Andhra Pradesh government), Filmfare South awards and SIIMA awards. Some of his most popular songs are ‘Srivalli’ from ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ (2021), ‘Nenunnanani’ from ‘Nenunnanu’ (2004), and ‘Aa Gattununtava’ from ‘Rangasthalam’ (20+8)
Keeravani’s son Kaala Bhairava is one of the two singers of ‘Naatu Naatu’, along with Rahul Siplingunj. Bhairava has sung for Telugu films such as ‘Baahubali’, ‘Dear Comrade’ (2019) and ‘Jersey’ (2019). Sipligunj started as an independent singer before he was noticed by Keeravani, and he went on to sing for films like ‘Dammu’, ‘Eega’ and ‘Maryada Ramanna’. He has singing credits in over 50 films to date.
Director Rajamouli is also seeing global success, after receiving widespread recognition across India in the last few years. His Baahubali films have also been popular in Japan, as the ‘RRR’ cast often mentioned during their red-carpet interviews. He has been signed by the American talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which manages Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Zendaya among others, indicating an interest in actively working in Hollywood.
Excitement over the recognition of Indian films (or those having Indian artists) coming from Western academies is not new. This reached a fever-pitch with the hype around ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and the adulation that followed its multiple wins at the ceremony.
AR Rahman then became the first Indian to win two Oscars in 2009, for the Best Original Score of Slumdog Millionaire and Best Original Song for its foot-tapping number Jai Ho, sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Mahalaxmi Iyer. Before the Oscar, Rahman won a Golden Globe for Best Score and a British Academy Film Award or BAFTA. These ceremonies are followed by the Oscar, and a win there is seen as boosting chances of an Oscar win — which seems to have been the case for ‘Naatu Naatu’ as well.
