TE24 Entertainment Desk:
The Indian film industry is one of the largest and most diverse industries in the world. It’s not really one, many different industries including Bollywood, Triwood, etc., but about 2,000 movies a year doesn’t make a big difference in western countries. The audience.
“We have a long history of storytelling in India. Probably the oldest and most colorful stories,” says director SS Rajamouri. “I was disappointed that I couldn’t travel across the border.”
This changed with RRR in Rajamuri. It is a three-hour Telugu action epic, which not only became one of the biggest hits in India’s history, but also outperformed the US box office. Before finding a mass audience on Netflix. RRR is in the top 10 movies in languages other than English on streaming services for the ninth consecutive week. Dubbed in Hindi and subtitled in 15 different languages, RRR is Netflix’s most popular Indian movie to date and ranks among the top 10 movies in 62 countries.
For many, RRR is based on Hindu mythology and the freedom fighter who fought against British colonialism and was first exposed to trio, Telugu film industry or Indian cinema. Many have seen movies full of great action sequences, huge dance numbers and energy that can hardly be matched by today’s Hollywood blockbusters. Push the bicycle. A tiger is thrown. Suspenders turn out to be a surprisingly flexible dance prop.
“It’s never enough for me,” Rajamouri said in a recent interview from Hyderabad, India. “The only thing that’s too much is that my producer is coming in and saying ‘I’m over budget’. You have to stop somewhere.” That’s what’s trying to stop me. If you get the chance, you’ll be big and wild. There is no mistake.
This blockbuster style won the support of Hollywood blockbuster filmmakers. Marvel movie directors James Gunn and Scott Derrickson have praised RRR since it started streaming. its success. RRR came as Netflix reeled from subscriber losses, declining market share, and a recession that threw its cinema model into controversy.
But a less controversial aspect of the Netflix platform is its ability to play non-English world hits. RRR follows global hit series such as Korean Squid Games and French Lupine. The Parasite-like theatrical premiere, which won Korea’s best work award, has already broken what Bong Joon-ho called the “one-inch barrier” for subtitles.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect such a Western reception,” says Rajamurry “Among the Indian diaspora in this country and around the world, that’s what we expected. But the reception from the West was a complete surprise to me. Western sensibilities are different from my kind of films. I always thought. I mainly react to Eastern or Indian sensibilities.
However, RRR has some implications. While Hollywood is heavy on a superhero movie, it is deeply rooted in Indian mythology and modern themes. RRR stands for “Rise Roar Revolt”, but also refers to Rajamouli and his two stars N.T.
Ramallah Jr. and Ram Charan. Each of them came from previously more rival movie star dynasties. It was the first movie that Charan and Lao did together, and if they were also the sons of Marlon Brando and James Dean, it was a bit like an encounter between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
You play Alluri Sitaram Raju (Charan) and Kumaram Bheem (Rao), real-life Indian revolutionaries who join forces in British-ruled India in the 1920s. Returning to the origins of modern India, RRR inevitably refers to modern India, which, like many other countries, has become more nationalistic in recent years.
Rajamouri, 48, also became one of the country’s most famous directors at the same time. In 2015, he released a two-part Baahubali epic. The 2017 sequel is considered to be the biggest box office grosser in the country. (Both stream on Netflix.)
Baahubali is a Telugu triumph, indicating that the South Indian trio may have overtaken Bollywood as India’s top film industry. In the highest-grossing Telugu movie of all time, RRR, with a budget of $72 million, Rajamouri combined Telugu traditions and Hindi wooden song and dance aesthetics in what Mehta believed to be a pan-India movie. I am.
Shouldn’t be too different from an American blockbuster like RRR. Top Gun: Maverick, America’s top movie this summer, isn’t stingy with muscular chauvinism. Rajamouli listens to the critics, but does not agree with their interpretations.
“I understand that point of view. Sometimes I think they’re just blind,” he says. “Personally, I’m an atheist. But I understand the power of animism. For me, spirituality is emotion. And I write emotional stories. But the pure healing of his filmmaking isn’t lost in translation—and that could mean more cultural intersections for Triwood and India.
“Indian films had their own different life cycle. If we had been open, it would have been seen as the arrival of something,” says Mehta. “We only know time. Let’s see if this is really a new trend and more movies like this will be made. Indian and Telugu movies might go this way. Or it might be a one shot.
Rajamouri is currently gearing up for his next long awaited movie. He is now often asked if he wants to do a Hollywood movie or a Marvel movie. But RRR suggests that Western audiences are flocking to Indian films, not the other way around. And Rajamouri focused on Indian and post-Indian filmmaking.
“With the success of RRR with the Western audience, I am trying to make a film not just for India but for the entire world,” says Rajamouli. “But I didn’t try to localize Western sensibilities, and I didn’t try to adjust and change my story accordingly. I don’t think that would work.”
