Entertainment

“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” wins the first Tollywood Oscar

Pakyong, 13 March: In India’s interpretation of the Cinderella tale, “Naatu Naatu” became the first song from a Tollywood film to win best original song at the Oscars, beating out superstars like Lady Gaga and Rihanna.

The award was given to famous composer M.M. Keeravani and lyricist Chandrabose, who jointly created the film’s score and all of the songs. Their victory came after a highly charged song-and-dance performance of “Naatu Naatu,” which was widely regarded as one of the telecast’s highlights this year. Keeravani wowed the crowd by singing a large portion of his acceptance speech to a Carpenters classic. He started by saying, “I grew up listening to the Carpenters and now here I am with the Oscars,” and then started singing the tune of the song.
Even before it won the Golden Globe for best song in January, “Naatu Naatu” was considered a front-runner and had strong odds of winning.
The song “Naatu Naatu” serves as both “the first song ever from an Indian production to be nominated for an Oscar” and “a real banger,” as presenter Deepika Padukone stated earlier in her introduction of the live performance of the song.
As social media users imitated the “hook step” choreography seen in footage published prior to the movie’s American premiere, it became the year’s most popular movie-music meme.
Indeed, Keeravani and Chandrabose are not the first Indians to take home the prize for best song. The song “Jai Ho” from the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” won the 2019 Oscar for best song, making composer A.R. Rahman a double victory. But despite its Indian setting, “Slumdog” was a British production. Rahman has been among many praising the historical significance of “Naatu Naatu” and congratulating the venerable Keeravani for facilitating what has been referred to as “a paradigm shift” for Indian film abroad.

Keeravaani claimed in an interview with Variety that the song’s beat was a major factor in its success. The composer explained, “The beat is 6/8 — that’s not very usually heard from the West, but more frequently heard from India, and sometimes from Africa, and nations like that. “To be more precise, it’s more of a South Indian beat than a North Indian beat. And in “Naatu Naatu,” this beat took on a new dimension and a level of BPM that is incredibly uncommon in the West. So, that was essentially what caught the Western audience’s attention.

The composer, however, also mentioned his singers, who sang a reprise of their soundtrack at the Oscars: “I chose Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava. The “Naatu Naatu” song, according to Keeravani, “needs to make you forget everything. Not just the audience who is watching the movie, but the characters from the plot, as well, need to forget everything else happening around them and focus their complete attention to the song. Also, the song’s coda, or final section, is an action sequence rather than just a song because it requires so much endurance.

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