Home > Culture > Film & TV > Oscar Nominations 2023: ‘RRR’ Nominated For ‘Naatu Naatu’ In ‘Best Original Song’
Oscar Nominations 2023: ‘RRR’ Nominated For ‘Naatu Naatu’ In ‘Best Original Song’
Culture

Oscar Nominations 2023: ‘RRR’ Nominated For ‘Naatu Naatu’ In ‘Best Original Song’

By: Aayaan Upadhyaya, Jan 24 2023 7:55 pm

The 2023 Oscar nominations were just announced and well, RRR fans had LOTS to celebrate. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for its electrifying song ‘Naatu Naatu’ in the Best Original Song category. M. M. Keeravani and  Chandrabose, who had earlier won the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice Award, will be up for the Oscar when the winners get revealed on 12 March 2023.

While RRR  did get nominated for ‘Naatu Naatu’, there was a fair share of disappointment as well since folks were hoping for nominations for the film in Best Picture and for S. S. Rajamouli in Best Director. Nevertheless, ‘Naatu Naatu’s’ nomination is history-making as this is the first time a Telugu song is being recognised by the Academy.

Twitter celebrates ‘RRR’s’ nomination

Twitter was in quite the celebratory mood after RRR’s nomination was announced by presenters Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams

RRR earlier won at the Critics Choice Awards as well

At the 2023 Critics Choice Awards, RRR was awarded the trophy for Best Foreign Language Film, while the smash hit ‘Naatu Naatu’ took home the award for Best Original Song. The song, composed by M. M. Keeravani, also took home the Golden Globe award in the same category.

Brendan Fraser and Cate Blanchett also won awards

The winners list at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards included popular names like Brendan Fraser and Cate Blanchett. While Fraser won for his heartbreaking performance as an obese man in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Blanchett took home the award for her triumphant performance in Tár. Everything Everywhere All at Once, which led with 14 nominations, took home the big prize for Best Picture.

S. S. Rajamouli, who was in attendance, also took to Twitter to share how James Cameron, the visionary director of films like Titanic and Avatar: The Way of Water, was a fan of his film. Cameron liked the movie so much that he even made his wife see it.

‘RRR’ had 5 nominations at the Critics Choice Awards

Earlier in December, RRR was also nominated in the Best Picture category at the 2022 Critics Choice Awards. The film was nominated with other contenders like The Fabelmans, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Top Gun: Maverick, and Babylon. S. S. Rajamouli too was nominated in the Best Director category alongside the likes of Steven Spielberg, Sarah Polley, and Todd Field.

RRR  was also nominated in other categories like Best VFX, Best International Film, and Best Original Song for ‘Naatu Naatu’, the latter two of which it won.

Critics Choice nominees for Best Film

Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once (winner)
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
RRR
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Women Talking

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ had led with 14 nominations

Top on the leaderboard of nominations was Everything Everywhere All at Once which bagged a whopping 14 nominations. These included nominations for Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Jaime Lee Curtis. The film was also nominated in craft categories like Costume Design, Production Design, and Film Editing.

‘Naatu Naatu’ earlier won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song 

Last week at the 80th annual Golden Globes, ‘Naatu Naatu’ made history by becoming the first Telugu song to win the award for Best Original Song. In doing so, it beat popular names from the music industry like Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift. Its win here, along with its recent win at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards, has cemented its status as the frontrunner for the Oscar. Speaking of which…

‘Naatu Naatu’ was also shortlisted for Best Original Song at the 2023 Oscars

The shortlists for some of the 23 categories for the 2023 Oscars meant great news for Indian cinema. RRR, which has been racking up nominations and wins at different award bodies like the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, was shortlisted in the Original Song category for the smash-hit ‘Naatu Naatu’. The song, which features an exhilarating dance-off, has also won at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards.

India’s submission for International Feature Film also got shortlisted

RRR wasn’t the only film that made India proud by appearing in the shortlists. Chhello Show (Last Film Show), India’s submission for International Feature Film, was also shortlisted as one of 15 films vying for the Oscar nomination. This shortlist mention is quite interesting since there had been a fair bit of controversy about Chhello Show’s selection as India’s submission in this category, ironically over RRR. Also of note was the shortlist mention for Joyland, which marks the first time Pakistan’s submission was shortlisted in this category.

Taylor Swift was snubbed for ‘All Too Well: The Short Film’

A noticeable snub was seen in the Live Action Short Film category where Taylor Swift was looked over for her 15-minute short film and music video for All Too Well.

Check out all of the Oscar shortlists below:

Makeup and Hairstyling

All Quiet on the Western Front
Amsterdam
Babylon
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Blonde
Crimes of the Future
Elvis
Emancipation
The Whale

Sound

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Moonage Daydream
Top Gun: Maverick

Visual Effects

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Jurassic World: Dominion
Nope
Thirteen Lives
Top Gun: Maverick

Original Score

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Devotion
Don’t Worry Darling
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio 
Nope
She Said
The Woman King
Women Talking

Original Song

‘Time’ from Amsterdam
‘Nothing is Lost (You Give Me Strength)’ from Avatar: The Way of Water
‘Lift Me Up’ from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
‘This is a Life’ from Everything Everywhere All at Once
‘Ciao Papa’ from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
‘Til You’re Home’ from A Man Called Otto
‘Naatu Naatu’ from RRR
‘My Mind & Me’ from Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me
‘Good Afternoon’ from Spirited
‘Applause’ from Tell It Like a Woman
‘Stand Up’ from Till
‘Hold My Hand’ from Top Gun: Maverick
‘Dust & Ash’ from The Voice of Dust and Ash
‘Carolina’ from Where the Crawdads Sing
‘New Body Rhumba’ from White Noise

International Feature

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico)
Cairo Conspiracy (Sweden)
The Blue Caftan (Morocco)
Close (Belgium)
Corsage (Austria)
Decision to Leave (South Korea)
EO (Poland)
Holy Spider (Denmark)
Joyland (Pakistan)
Last Film Show (India)
The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
Return to Seoul (Cambodia)
Saint Omer (France)

Documentary Feature Film

All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Bad Axe
Children of the Mist
Descendant
Fire of Love
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
Hidden Letters
A House Made of Splinters
The Janes
Last Flight Home
Moonage Daydream
Navalny
Retrograde
The Territory

Animated Short Film

Black Slide
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
The Debutante
The Flying Sailor
The Garbage Man
Ice Merchants
It’s Nice in Here
More than I Want to Remember
My Year of Dicks
New Moon
An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Passenger
Save Ralph
Sierra
Steakhouse

Live Action Short Film

All in Favor
Almost Home
An Irish Goodbye
Ivalu
Le Pupille
The Lone Wolf
Nakam
Night Ride
Plastic Killer
The Red Suitcase
The Right Words
Sideral
The Treatment
Tula
Warsha

Documentary Short Film

American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton
Anastasia
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison
As Far as They Can Run
The Elephant Whisperers
The Flagmakers
Happiness Is £4 Million
Haulout
Holding Moses
How Do You Measure a Year?
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Nuisance Bear
Shut Up and Paint
Stranger at the Gate
38 at the Garden

National Board of Review had earlier named RRR in its 10 Best Films Of The Year

National Board of Review had also named RRR as one of its ten best films of the year. This is quite an incredible feat as, normally, the National Board of Review doesn’t include foreign-language films in its list of top 10. Even Parasite, that was the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, was not named by NBR. Roma was the last foreign-language film that NBR named in its top 10 and it went on to get a whopping 10 Oscar nominations. So, this mention could be a major bellwether for RRR’s Oscar chances.

The top ten films of 2022 named by NBR (in alphabetical order)

Aftersun
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
RRR
Till
The Woman King
Women Talking

These top 10 films are chosen after the Best Film of the year gets named in NBR’s annual awards. This year, that honour was bestowed upon Top Gun: Maverick. The other winners at NBR’s awards were:

Best Director: Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans
Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Actor: Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson for The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Supporting Actress: Janelle Monáe for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Original Screenplay: The Banshees of Inisherin
Adapted Screenplay: All Quiet on the Western Front

S.S Rajamouli also won the NYFCC award

The New York Film Critics Circle had earlier presented their annual awards and there was a name on the list of winners that was a pleasant surprise – S. S. Rajamouli. The ace director, who is already responsible for the most successful Indian film of all time, might also make history by becoming the first Indian to be nominated for the ‘Best Director‘ category at the Oscars.

Members of the Indian film industry also took to Twitter to celebrate S.S. Rajamouli’s special win. Cast members Oliva Morris and Jr. N.T.R. were the first to congratulate, along with other prominent directors, actors, and film critics.

Other winners at the NYFCC awards include Cate Blanchett for Tár (Best Actress), Collin Ferrell for The Banshees of Inisherin and After Yang (Best Actor), Ke Huy Quan for Everything Everywhere All At Once (Best Supporting Actor), and Keke Palmer for Nope (Best Supporting Actress). Tár also took the top prize and won Best Picture, while The Banshees of Inisherin won Best Screenplay.

Why is S.S. Rajamouli’s NYFCC win significant?

S. S. Rajamouli’s win is quite significant as the NYFCC awards tend to be a bellwether for the Oscars. Previous winners who have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Director include Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma).

Understanding the likelihood of his history-making nomination, Rajamouli has also been on the campaign trail lately. He has been giving interviews to film journalists and organisations around the world and even attended the Oscar’s Governors Awards.

What Is RRR’s plot about?

Set in the 1920s in a colonised India, RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) depicts the lives of Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem and how they joined forces to fight for India’s freedom. RRR stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Alison Doody, and Olivia Morris.

(Main image credits: courtesy IMDb)
(Feature image credits: courtesy Facebook/@SSRajamouli)

Awards Season Critics Choice Awards Golden Globes Jr. N.T.R Oscars Ram Charan RRR S. S. Rajamouli
written by.

Aayaan Upadhyaya
Senior Editor - Growth, Augustman
Aayaan Upadhyaya enjoys writing about pop culture, wellness, and lifestyle. In his spare time, you can find him listening to true crime podcasts, playing RPG video games, or reading an engrossing novel. A graduate of journalism and mass communication, he is a senior editor who has previously worked with Times Internet.
Movies Wellness Tech

Most popular

View all Articles
You May Also Like.
Follow us @Augustman