Ram Charan with SS Rajamouli and Jr NTR.
SS Rajamouli is the man of the moment. The filmmaker has been on a winning spree and how. The year began with him winning the Best Director trophy at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, followed by a Golden Globe win for RRR song Naatu Naatu (it won the Best Song). RRR recently won two big prizes at the Critics Choice Awards - Best Foreign Film and Best Song (for Naatu Naatu). Meanwhile, RRR stars Jr NTR and Ram Charan helped us understand the filmmaker a little better. During an interview with Los Angeles Times, Ram Charan and Jr NTR summed up their experiences of working with the filmmaker.
Jr NTR revealed how SS Rajamouli helped in bridging the gap between Bollywood and regional cinema. "We have started calling it the Indian film industry, as opposed to dividing it into Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood," Jr NTR told Los Angeles Times. Ram Charan added, "Rajamouli burned the 'woods and just made it one big united Indian film industry." SS Rajamouli's last few releases - RRR and the Baahubali series (originally made in Telugu) went on to become some of the biggest hits of India.
Jr NTR and Ram Charan have previously worked with SS Rajamouli in Student No: 1, Simhadri, and Magadheera, respectively. Ram Charan said during the interview, "Not too many directors can give you the confidence to surrender to them." He added, "We didn't want to put our whole careers in jeopardy just for the fanciness of coming together because we are friends. There had to be a reason: the maker and the subject."
Speaking of SS Rajamouli's international fandom (with the likes of James Cameron on the list), Jr NTR said, "I always felt this man was not destined to make only films in Telugu or in India. He is one of those rare phenoms who can travel the globe with his films. With each film, he's only gotten better. I feel that RRR was his plan of taking the West."
RRR is going places and we mean literally. The film was nominated in 2 categories at this year's Golden Globes. While it did win for Naatu Naatu, the film missed out in the Best Foreign Language category, which was won by Argentina,1985.
The film has also submitted itself for consideration in several Oscar categories and it features on a list of 301 films that are eligible for the awards. Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 24. Additionally, the film has also made it to BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) longlist in the Best Film (Non English) category. The BAFTA nominations will be announced on January 19 and the awards will take place on 19 February.