Oscars 2023: RRR's 'Naatu Naatu' among 3 nominations for India

After making it big at the Golden Globe Awards, filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus ‘RRR’ on Tuesday created history with the film’s hit track ‘Naatu Naatu’ earning an Oscar nomination in the Best Original Song category. The film had won the Golden Globe in the same category.

In the category, the movie was nominated alongside Applause 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. “WE CREATED HISTORY!! Proud and privileged to share that #NaatuNaatu has been nominated for Best Original song at the 95th Academy Awards,” tweeted the official website of the movie.

The nominations for the Oscars were announced by actors Riz Ahmed and Alison Williams. The 95th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on March 12.

With this ‘RRR’ joins a select group of Indian films to have gone to the Oscars. Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan were nominated for Best International Feature Film.

Now, Indian cinema lovers are hoping that Naatu Naatu composer MM Keeravaani will join the league of Indian Oscar winners that includes Bhanu Athaiya (Best Costume Design for Gandhi), and AR Rahman, Gulzar and sound engineer Resul Pookutty who won Oscars for their work in Slumdog Millionaire.

Also read: Golden Globe Awards: RRR’s Naatu Naatu wins best original song

‘From Ooty to biggest stage of cinema’

Tamil documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ on Tuesday bagged a nomination in the Documentary Short Subject category of the 95th Academy Awards. Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, the documentary is nominated in the section alongside four other films — Haulout, How Do You Measure a Year?, The Martha Mitchell Effect and Stranger at the Gate. ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ depicts an unbreakable bond between two abandoned elephants and their caretakers. It is produced by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain of Sikhya Entertainment.

“Today’s nomination strengthens my faith in stories with heart and people who tirelessly submit themselves to a larger vision. It is truly for them! It is the innocence and honesty that transcended these boundaries and made ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ travel from a small quaint town of Ooty to the biggest stage of Cinema! This journey has also been about the representation and making our country proud. So here’s to India, and here’s to all of us…. RRR and All That Breathes. OMG! This is for INDIA,” Monga tweeted. The documentary was one of the 15 documentary short films to be shortlisted at the 95th Academy Awards.

‘All That Breathes’ scores another nomination

Indian climate change documentary ‘All That Breathes’ also made it to the final nominations list at the 95th edition of the Academy Awards. The Shaunak Sen-directorial is nominated in the Best Documentary Feature segment alongside All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, A House Made of Splinters and Navalny.

Set in Delhi, the documentary follows two siblings, Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who have devoted their lives to rescuing and treating injured birds, especially black kites.

‘All That Breathes’ is also nominated for a BAFTA Award. It previously won the ‘World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary’ at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, a film gala that promotes independent cinema and filmmakers, and earned the Golden Eye award for the best documentary at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Last year, Indian feature documentary ‘Writing With Fire’ was part of the final nominations list in the Best Documentary Feature section but lost out to Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). It was the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award.

(With Agency inputs)