SS Rajamouli receiving his award. (courtesy: RRRMovie)
SS Rajamouli recently won the top prize - Best Director - at the New York Film Critics Circle for his film RRR. Pictures and videos from the awards were shared by the official Twitter handle of RRR. In his acceptance speech, the filmmaker thanked his family, the film's cast and crew and the jury for the awards. He said, "Receiving this award from you is a great honour. I really appreciate it. You have honoured my whole cast and crew and have made a lot of people take notice of a small film from the south of India. Many people don't know that such a field exists but because of this, now I am sure many people will look at it." He added, "With RRR, I saw the same kind of reception in the West. They were reacting the same way that Indians did." Speaking about the epic pre-interval sequence of RRR, the director said, "The look on the audience's faces... It was pure joy, awe. We could look at their faces and know what they were thinking. Like 'what in the hell did we just witness!' This is exactly what I want from my audience... pure joy of watching the film in the theatre."
Here's a video of SS Rajamouli's acceptance speech:
Here's a photo of SS Rajamouli on the stage.
Meanwhile, SS Rajamouli and RRR stars Ram Charan and Jr NTR will also attend the Golden Globe awards which will be held in Los Angeles on January 11. RRR has been nominated in 2 categories - for Best Foreign Film, and the film's track Naatu Naatu has been nominated for Best Original Song.
Nattu Nattu from SS Rajamouli's RRR has also made it to the Oscars shortlist of the Best Original Song Category. The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on January 24. RRR, released across the globe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, has submitted itself for consideration in various Oscar categories.
RRR, set in the 1920's, is a fictitious story based on two legendary freedom fighters - Alluri Seetharamaraju and Komaram Bheem. It boasts of an impressive cast which included Ram Charan and Jr NTR in lead roles. It also starred Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Olivia Morris, Samuthirakani, Alison Doody, Ray Stevenson. The film opened to largely positive reviews from film critics and an overwhelming response from the audience, both in India and across the globe.