The song “Naatu Naatu” from the movie RRR won the hearts of audiences worldwide and made India proud at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards. The movie has exceptional storytelling, jaw-dropping visual effects, acting skills, choreography, and many more interesting facts about it.
An Indian movie, RRR, has won a Golden Globe for the Best Original Song, “Naatu Naatu,” composed by MM Keeravani and sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava. It is a foot-thumping, energetic song featuring Tamil superstars Ram Charan and Jr. NTR. The song won among many hit song nominees, like Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Taylor Swift’s “Carolina” from “Where the Crawdads Sing,” and Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick.” RRR was also nominated in the “Best Non-English Language Film” category but lost to Argentina in 1985.
Since its theatrical release on March 25, 2022, RRR has become the first Indian film to gross over $100 million worldwide since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. After releasing on Netflix on May 20, RRR’s popularity grew in America, the UK, and most of all in Japan.
RRR is directed by S. S. Rajamouli, and written by K. V. Vijayendra Prasad. With a budget of 550 crore, RRR is the most expensive Indian film to date.
Originally, the title of the movie RRR was not confirmed, and the director called it RRR after his name, Rajamouli, and the lead actors, Ram Charan and Rama Rao. Later, the creators put out a challenge for the audience to give the abbreviation its full form to describe the movie. Eventually, they fixed the full form to Raudraṁ Raṇaṁ Rudhiraṁ which translates from Telugu to English as “Rise, Roar, Revolt.”
Like any Indian movie, RRR also has many songs and dance sequences to enthral the audience. The song “Naatu’ Naatu” has an important role to play in the success of the movie RRR. Let’s look at some of the interesting facts about the movie that you may or may not have heard.
The historical influence on the storyline of RRR
The story of the movie RRR is inspired by the real-life freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. A.S. Raju led the Rampa Rebellion in 1922, which opposed the colonial law of the British Raj to impose the Madras Forest Act 1882. This act was inadvertently used against the tribals of Andhra Pradesh to shift and therefore give up their richly cultivated land into the hands of Britishers.
“In 1924, Raju was taken into police custody, tied to a tree, and shot by a public execution, effectively ending the armed rebellion. He was awarded the designation of manyam veerudu, or “forest hero,” for his courage.”
Another rebel, Komaram Bheem from Telangana, was acutely aware of the injustices of the colonial Britishers. He heard about AS Raju and was inspired to defend his Gond tribe, which was also facing atrocities.
“In the early 1900s, he (Bheem) spearheaded a rebellion against the last Nizam of Hyderabad and the oppression of local landowners.”
The Nizam was known for siding with the British and wealthy landowners to levy heavy taxes on crop income on the marginalised hardworking tribes.
“Bheem originated the historical slogan ‘Jal Jangal Zameen,’ (River, Forest, Land) which has been extensively echoed in Adivasi (tribal) struggles until this day.”
Though these two freedom fighters never came together in history, Rajamouli has shown in his fictionalised story how powerful a freedom movement it would have become if that happened.
The director of the movie RRR – SS Rajamouli
Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli, or SS Rajamouli, is the director of the movie RRR. He is a celebrated Tamil film director and screenwriter with many years of experience making superhit films. His genre of writing and direction is primarily action, fantasy, and epic, and every movie he has made has been critically praised and a box office super hit.
“He is a recipient of various national and international honors including one New York Film Critics Circle award, two Saturn Awards, three National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards South, and five Nandi Awards. In 2016, for his contributions in the field of Art, the Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri.”
Wikipedia
The super stars of the movie RRR
It is a multi-starrer film with N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan Teja in the leads. The Indian cast includes action hero Ajay Devgan and the talented and beautiful Alia Bhatt, who plays the role of Bheem’s fiancée. Samuthirakani and Shriya Saran are in the supporting roles. The Hollywood cast has Olivia Morris as Raju’s love interest. Ray Stevenson of Dexter, Black Sails, and HBO’s Rome plays the British Raj administrator. His sadistic wife is played by a former Bond girl and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’s Alison Doody.
About the songs and THE song – Naatu Naatu – of the movie RRR
The RRR movie has six songs written by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, Chandrabose, Suddala Ashok Teja, Ramajogayya Sastry, K. Shiva Dutta, and Keeravani himself. Madhan Karky (Tamil), Riya Mukherjee and Varun Grover (Hindi), Mankombu Gopalakrishnan (Malayalam), and Varadaraj Chikkaballapura (Kannada) wrote the lyrics for the dubbed versions. The album was released by Lahari Music and T-Series on April 16, 2022.
The song Naatu Naatu is placed in the scene when the lead characters are invited to a British ball. While the formal ball dance is going on, the British officer (the bad guy) is challenged by the lead actors, who have now become friends, in a dance battle. Up until now, they have been portrayed as serious fighters, so the dance steps were presented in a highly energetic and strong way, almost replicating a fight.
Backing the lead actors is the love interest Jenny, and soon the rest of the British guests also become excited about the competition. The frenzy of the song and the hook step are so mesmerising that whenever the song played on screen, the audience couldn’t stop dancing along.
“The basic tune of the score is based on Indian culture, but the instruments that composer M. M. Kreem uses are mainly western, allowing the music to feel familiar to a US audience while staying true to its Indian roots. It also reinforces the yin-yang of the heroes’ fire and water characteristics.”
The amazing choreography of Naatu Naatu song
One of the advantages of social media for dancers and choreographers is the attraction of visual marketing. Dancers can display their talent to the world for free. When the song Naatu Naatu was released online on November 10, 2021, the Indian dancers immediately took to social media and, with their dance and video edits, popularised the song, making it an instant hit. Soon, even international dancers who love dancing to Indian songs made the Naatu Naatu hook step viral on Instagram and Tik Tok.
The choreography for the song Naatu Naatu has been done by four-time Filmfare Award-winning choreographer Prem Rakhshith. He had worked earlier with the director, and he knew exactly the type of presentation required for the movie, the characters, and the specified scene. Prem’s father also worked as a junior artist and background dancer in Tamil movies.
In an interview, Prem revealed that when he got the news that he had to choreograph the two lead superstars, he was a bit nervous. Both the actors have different dance styles, and he had to make sure that the energy and dance steps looked impressive and in perfect synchronization.
Prem Rakhshith took 2 months to choreograph the song to perfection. He tried 80 different variations of the hook step before finalizing one.
The director Rajamouli being a perfectionist wanted every detail of the dance step to be synchronized. Talking about the dance performance, Jr. NTR told in an interview that
“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 synchronization, watching on the monitor if the legs and hands went together, and I was like ‘Jesus, why are you doing this?’” he said.
It took 20 days and 43 retakes to complete the song Naatu Naatu.
The shooting location of the song and the movie
The announcement that this movie would be made was made in 2018. Due to COVID lockdown and restrictions and later because of minor injuries during the action sequence, the release of the movie was delayed. The movie industry, along with other work, almost came to a standstill as everybody was scared of the combined uncertainty. However, the lyricist and music composer MMKeeravani worked through the lockdown to complete the songs.
When the COVID restrictions were gradually lifted, the song and the movie were completed and released. Some movie scenes were shot in Bulgaria and Ukraine. In fact, you will be surprised to know that the song Naatu Naatu was shot a few months before the war between Ukraine and Russia began. In the background, where the actors are dancing, you can see the Mariinsky Presidential Palace in Kyiv.
If you have seen the movie RRR, then do share your experience and reviews with me in the comments section.
References
Explained: Who Were Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, The ‘Real Life’ Heroes Of RRR, Zoya Hussain, Updated on Mar 29, 2022, 13:08 IST.
https://www.indiatimes.com/explainers/news/rajmoulis-rrr-freedom-fighters-alluri-sitarama-raju-and-komaram-bheem-565552.html
51+ Interesting Facts You Don’t Know About RRR Movie | Jr. NTR, Ram Charan
https://neplych.com/31-interesting-facts-you-dont-know-about-rrr-movie/
Everything You Should Know About “RRR” —The Movie That You Need Right Now,
by Darren Leis, BuzzFeed Contributor, Posted on Jan 1, 2023.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/dpleis/everything-you-should-know-about-rrr
strongfitnessmoves 
Leave a comment