Anurag Kashyap predicts Oscar nomination for RRR, hopes Kashmir Files isn’t picked as India’s official selection instead

RRR is currently the second-biggest film of 2022 in India behind KGF: Chapter 2, but the fictional period epic became a bonafide crossover hit in the United States after being discovered on Netflix, and subsequently attracting the attention of some of Hollywood’s biggest filmmakers.

Anurag said that it has a 99% chance of being nominated at the Oscars. “I enjoyed Pushpa, I didn’t enjoy RRR as much, because I’m a massive Rajamouli-Eega fan. When he makes me believe in something which only comes from his mind, I believe in it. But when you’re building a mythology, then I feel it’s not really sticking. RRR, some action scenes had an impact on me. Like when the animals come out, I was like, ‘How can someone think like this?’ I was blown away by that. But the film as a whole, I put RRR below Baahubali, below Eega, below Magadheera, below a lot of other films.”

Talking about the film’s impact in the West, he continued, “They find it better than any Marvel movie. They’ve really gone crazy for it, even the silliness of it. And they are so blown away not only by the action sequences, but also the dance sequences.” He added, “The West sees RRR differently than how we see it, and they’ve loved RRR. If RRR becomes the India selection, 99% it might get nominated for the Academy Award. That is the impact that RRR has had in the world of Hollywood. India might actually have a nomination in the final five, if RRR is the film that we pick. I don’t know what film anybody is going to pick. I hope not Kashmir Files.”

Among the rare Hindi language hits of the year, Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files has been criticised for being a thinly-veiled propaganda piece. The last Indian feature film to score an Academy Award nomination was Lagaan, in the Best Foreign Language category, as it was known back then. RRR has been acclaimed not just be the American press, but also noted filmmakers such as Scott Derrickson, Joe and Anthony Russo, James Gunn, and most recently, Edgar Wright.