'Naatu Naatu' singer Rahul thrilled with award; bursts into song on phone

The 33-year-old Rahul Sipligunj, one of the playback singers of the fast-paced, peppy ‘Naatu Naatu’, which picked up the 2023 Golden Globe award for Best Original song, is naturally on a high. Talking to The Federal, Sipligunj, who has been active in Telugu cinema since 2009, said that first he wanted to “thank SS Rajamouli sir for giving him this huge opportunity to sing this iconic number”.

The song, composed by MM Keeravani, was sung by Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj. The other songs nominated under the category were Ciao Papa from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Carolina by Taylor Swift for Where The Crawdads Sing, the Top Gun song ‘Hold My Hand‘ by Lady Gaga, and Rihanna’s ‘Lift Me Up’ from Black Panther. Naatu Naatu has also been shortlisted for the 95th Academy Awards, which will be held on March 25, 2023.

Overflowing with happiness, Sipligunj, a Telugu Big Boss 3 winner, was in a celebratory mood and spontaneously started to belt out the song, Naatu, Naatu, on the phone when asked how the entire RRR team was celebrating this massive win back in the US. The song seemed to express the happiness and robust energy the entire team was feeling over this historic win at the 80th Golden Globes award. This is a significant win for South Indian films.

RRR, which made over ₹1,2000 crore globally, has won other international awards recently like the Best Director award for S S Rajamouli, at the New York Film Critics Circle Award.

According to Sipligunj, the entire team was “very nervous” at the Golden Globes, which was hosted by comedian Jerrod Carmichael, but they had “received lots of love for the song” since it released which probably helped in winning the award.

“It is also thanks to entire India who stood by us that we won the award,” added an emotional Sipligunj, who seemed to be unable to frame his sentences to express his joy at winning the award. Sipligunj, who was well aware that he was giving his voice to superstars, also worked very, very hard to match the expectations of his guru, Keeravani and director S S Rajamouli.

Sipligunj, who hails from a middle-class background from Dhoolpet in Hyderabad, became famous with his YouTube songs and was known for his ‘Telangana folksy flavour’ he gave his numbers. He started singing in films when he was 20 years old. Snehithuda was the first film he sang for (though his song College Bulloda for Naga Chaitanya’s debut film Josh released much earlier), after a stint as a chorus singer for M M Keeravani, the composer of Naatu Naatu. Keeravani included him in his team after hearing his songs in Snehithuda and Josh.

Earlier hits

He became popular in Tollywood with his songs like Vaastu Bagunde in Dammu, Singareni Undi in Racha, You are My Darlingo in Jakkana, O Alekhya O Alekhya in Doosukeltha, Peddha Puli in Chal Mohan Ranga. He sang his most popular song Ranga Ranga Rangasthalana from the movie Rangasthalam, and now he has garnered international fame for Naatu Naatu, which he sang along with Kaala Bhairava, who happens to be Rajamouli’s nephew.

Naatu Naatu composer MM Keeravani is married to producer Sreevalli, who is the sister of Rajamouli’s wife, former actress and costume designer Rama Rajamouli. Their son is Kaala Bhairava.

Sipligunj identifies himself on his Twitter page as a Tollywood playback singer and Telugu pop artist.