‘Naatu Naatu’ get Oscars: In the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, India’s ‘Naatu Naatu song’ from SS Rajamouli’s film RRR today made history by becoming the first Indian film to win an Oscar for best original song.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his delight at the country’s achievements at the Oscars in Los Angeles today. Congratulating the entire team of the movie RRR for winning in the best original song category, Mr Modi said that the popularity of the song ‘Naatu Naatu’ is global. In a tweet, he remarked that the song will be remembered for years to come.
The Prime Minister also congratulated the entire team of the documentary short film The Elephant Whisperers for their win at the event. He lauded their work, which he said, wonderfully highlights the importance of sustainable development and living in harmony with nature.
Composer of the song M. M. Keeravani along with lyricist Chandrabose collected the award. Playback singers of the Naatu Naatu song, Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava performed the song at the Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles in USA.
The performance got them a standing ovation. The live performance at the ceremony was introduced by Deepika Padukone. RRR is the first Indian film in over two decades to be nominated for the Academy Awards while ‘Naatu Naatu’ was the first Indian song to be nominated at the Oscars.
The film inspired from the lives of freedom fighters Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju, narrates a fictional tale set in the 1920s.
The song, choreographed by Prem Rakshith was competing against Applause from the film Tell It Like A Woman, Hold My Hand from the movie Top Gun: Maverick, Lift me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and This Is Life, from Everything, Everywhere All At Once.
Another Indian entry in the Academy Awards ‘The Elephant Whisperers\’ also won an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category.
This 41 minutes short documentary movie of filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga, explores the bond between Raghu, an orphaned baby elephant, and his caretakers.
The other four nominees in the Short Film category were Haulout, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Stranger At The Gate, and How Do You Measure A Year? 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 in 1969 and An Encounter With Faces in 1979.
In 2008, song ‘Jai Ho’, composed by AR Rahman and penned by Gulzar, from the British film Slumdog Millionaire became the first Hindi song to win an Academy Award in the Best Original Score and Original Song categories.
