The song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from SS Rajamouli’s period drama RRR (Roudram, Ranam, Rudhiram) is now officially in the race for the Oscars. The official nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday, January 24. The film has been nominated in Best Orignal Song category. Whether the song will win an Oscar or not will be known at the award presentation ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kemmel on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles in the United States of America. The film did not however get nominated in the Best Picture category.
Earlier, RRR had made it to the list of 301 films eligible for Oscar nominations. Along with RRR, the list also included 10 other Indian films like Kantara, Vikranth Rona, and Chhello Show, among others. The Gujarati film Chhello Show is the official entry for Oscar from India. RRR was not the official entry for the Oscars by the Indian government and was submitted nominations in all categories by its US distributor Dylan Marchetti from Variance Films.
The Oscars 2023 nominations were officially announced at a ceremony hosted by actors Alison Williams and Riz Ahmed on Tuesday at 8.30 am Eastern Time, which is 7.00 pm Indian Standard Time.
The Oscar nomination for the song adds to the long list of international accolades and awards that the RRR team has received so far. Earlier, the film won a Golden Globe award in the Best Original Song category for ‘Naatu Naatu’, composed by MM Keeravani and sung by Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj. It also bagged the Critics Choice award for the Best Foreign language film and Best song for ‘Naatu Naatu’. Now, once again the song has been secured a spot in the Oscar nominations in the Best Original Song category.
This year's Original Song nominees are music to our ears. #Oscars #Oscars95 pic.twitter.com/peKQmFD9Uh
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 24, 2023
Films in the race for Oscars 2023
RRR’s ‘Naatu Naatu’ will now compete with ‘Applause’ from Tell It Like a Woman, ‘Hold My Hand’ from Top Gun: Maverick, ‘Lift Me Up’ from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and ‘This is a Life’ from Everything Everywhere All At Once. All these songs have been officially nominated in the Best Original Song category.
RRR is a period drama set in pre-independence India of the 1920s. The story penned by K Vijayendra Prasad (Rajamouli’s father) is woven around two real life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Seetharamaraju and Komaram Bheem. While Jr NTR portrayed Komaram Bheem, Ram Charan essayed the role of Alluri Seetharamaraju. The movie also starred Olivia Morris, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Ray Stevenson, and Alison Doody playing significant roles. The movie was bankrolled by DVV Danayya under DVV Entertainments.
The film hit theatres in India in March 2022 in five languages including Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Tamil. The movie is available on Disney + Hotstar, Netflix, and Zee5 in various languages.
Meanwhile, other documentaries like All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers are also included in the shortlists of documentary feature and documentary short segments, respectively.