INDIA CELEBRATES AS RRR SONG, THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS WIN OSCAR

Mon 13 March 2023:

Indians are celebrating a historic night at the Oscars after a breakout hit song from the action movie RRR and a short documentary, The Elephant Whisperers, win at the Oscars.

“Naatu Naatu” won the award for the best original song, making history as the first homemade movie from the South Asian country to win the honour.

The song – a fast-paced number that has found fans all over the world, spawned a TikTok challenge and has millions of views on YouTube – won a standing ovation when it was performed at the 95th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

“No words can describe this surreal moment. Dedicating this to all our amazing fans across the world. THANK YOU!!,” the Twitter account for RRR posted.

Television images showed people dancing to the song in the streets, minutes after the award was announced, as #NaatuNaatu became a top trend on Twitter. The song also won the Golden Globes earlier this year.

“The popularity of ‘Naatu Naatu’ is global. It will be a song that will be remembered for years to come,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter, congratulating the team behind the song.

“Entire India is proud. They have brought India to the world stage,” Prudhvi Chandra, one of the singers of “Naatu Naatu”, told the India Today news channel.

The Telugu movie “Naatu Naatu,” which was filmed by SS Rajamouli and stars Ram Charan and NT Rama Rao Jr., opens with the two leads, played by Charan and Rao, bragging about their dance moves after being teased for being the only Indians invited to a British celebration during colonial times.

Everyone at the party, even the mocking British man, tries to learn the moves during the scenario, which was recorded at Ukraine’s opulent Mariinskyi House.

Composer MM Keeravani and lyricist Chandrabose both broke into song as they accepted their Oscars on stage.

“I feel this is about just the beginning of everything so that the world – particularly the Western World – focuses more on Indian music and Asian music, which is long due,” Keeravani said backstage after winning the award.

Kartiki Gonsalves, who won for The Elephant Whisperers, is the first Indian director to win in the category as well as the first Indian ever to win in any directing category.

Although Indians had previously won Oscars, no Indian film had done so until Sunday night.

In the movie The Elephant Whisperers, a native Indian couple adopts and raises an orphaned baby elephant in southern India.

Gonsalves dedicated the Oscar “to my motherland India” and thanked the subjects of her documentary for sharing their tribal knowledge. “I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world,” she said.

“We just win the first ever Oscar for an Indian Production!,” producer Guneet Monga tweeted. “Two women did this! I am still shivering.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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