It’s an Awwwwscar moment for India! Yes, you heard it right, India has made it to the Oscars! The chartbuster ‘Naatu Naatu”, composed by MM Keeravaani and penned by Chandrabose has won the Oscar for the Best Original Song. The second win was fetched by the short film ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Achin Jain and Guneet Monga. The 95th Academy Awards are currently underway at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
‘Naatu Naatu’ carves its niche!
This absolutely viral track is from RRR, directed by SS Rajamouli, featuring actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR. This is the third big win for the song with Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award being the earlier two. In the category, the Telugu song was nominated alongside ‘Applause’ from from “Tell It Like a Woman”, ‘Hold My Hand’ from “Top Gun: Maverick”, ‘Lift Me Up’ from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and ‘This Is a Life’ from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. RRR (Rise.Roar.Revolt.) literally rose, roared and revolted as it climbed the ladder to leave behind these weighted competitors.
Sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, the song was shot in the lawns of the Presidential Palace of Kyiv in Ukraine. It was recently revealed that the choreographer Prem Rakshith had come up with over “100 variations” of the hook step for the song.
The song celebrates the inclusive spirit of dance and the title of the track translates to bucolic in Telugu. It is a full pack of energy and joy celebrating the spirit of countryside music in its total runtime of 4.35 minutes. The singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava performed the song live on the stage of the 95th Academy Awards. A dance troupe also accompanied them and made the world do ‘Naatu Naatu’.
‘The Elephant Whisperers’ makes a fairly loud whisper!
Produced by Achin Jain and Guneet Monga, and directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, the 41-minute short won the Oscar in the ‘Documentary Short Film‘ category. The movie started streaming on the biggest OTT platform Netflix on December 8, 2022. It follows the story of a family from Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve who end up adopting two orphan baby elephants.
It is a big affair as ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ is the first Indian film to win an Oscar in this category and the third to be nominated after The House That Ananda Built and An Encounter With Faces which competed for Best Documentary Short in 1969 and 1979 respectively. The other four nominees in the category this year were Haulout, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Stranger At The Gate, and How Do You Measure A Year?
The movie revolves around the life of an indigenous couple named Bomman and Belli who are entrusted with an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu. They endure a lot of pain to make sure that the fragile, injured infant elephant survives and grows to be a healthy one. With the course of time, a strong bond develops between the couple and the elephant. The story is all about the bond between animal and human and them co-existing joyfully.
It also showcases Indian culture and tradition of environment conservation. The cinematography by Karan Thapliyal, Krish Makhija, Anand Bansal and Kartiki Gonsalves is a thing to swear by. The magically devouring shots capture and depict the beauty of the state in entirety.
Cheers to both the wins as India celebrates it with all of us doing ‘Naatu Naatu’ while whispering the big thing to the world.
