Explained: How Rajamouli’s RRR blew competition away at the Oscars 2023?

RRR's song 'Naatu Naatu' has won an Oscar for Best Original Song and became the first Indian production to win an Oscar. 'RRR', featuring Ram Charan and Jr NTR in lead roles, along with Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, and Olivia Morris made history for Indian cinema after 'Slumdog Millionaire'. 

The plot of 'RRR' revolves around two real-life revolutionaries who fought against the British Empire in the early 20th century. The film's title, 'RRR', stands for "Roudram Ranam Rudhiram" which means "Revolt, Battle, Bloodshed" in Telugu.

Why RRR won the Oscar?

Rajamouli has always been praised for delivering crazy, outlandish, gravity- and logic-defying cinematic spectacles. In India, the film was quite a big hit, but we have seen such big, masala-stuffed films before, though nothing quite like 'RRR'.

But this magic on screen appealed on a different level to international audiences too. The craft of filmmaking that follows no logic and is full of entertainment is something West has barely witnessed.  And the movie being available on Netflix made sure the commitment to watch the admittedly fairly long movie wasn't that big. And they simply fell under the spell cast by Rajamouli. As per author and 'Doctor Strange' co-screenwriter C Robert Cargill - RRR "is a level of spectacle that defies description."

As the world danced to the tunes of 'Naatu Naatu' for the better part of last year, it became increasingly clear to many that the film, and particularly its song, had the potential to win awards, and could even win the biggest cinema honour of them all: an Oscar. The film had been a huge success when it was released in India. The presence of Hindi film stars Devgn and Bhatt made sure that 'RRR', like Rajamouli's own 'Baahubali' films, truly became a pan-Indian film.

The film's American distributor Variance Films and Rajamouli submitted the film to the Oscars in 14 categories in 'For Your Consideration' campaign. Variance Films had the full confidence in the film's chances that made 'RRR' an unlikely hopeful for Oscars' major categories. 'RRR' was also promoted to take the Oscar statuette in Best Supporting Actor (Ajay Devgn), Best Supporting Actress (Alia Bhatt), Screenplay, Score, Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Production Design, VFX, and other categories. 
'RRR' was released on March 4, 2022.