New Delhi: “Naatu Naatu” is a song of people of India, said RRR star Ram Charan as he returned to the country Friday post the Oscar win of the track from the SS Rajamouli directorial.
The 37-year-old actor, who was accompanied by his wife, entrepreneur Upasana Kamineni Konidela, was greeted by scores of elated fans at the Delhi airport.
“I am pleased and happy. Thank you, everyone. We are proud of MM Keeravani, SS Rajamouli and Chandrabose. Because of them, we went to the red carpet and brought an Oscar for India.
“I thank all the fans and people from North to South and East to West parts of India for watching ‘RRR’ and making the ‘Naatu Naatu’ song a superhit. ‘Naatu Naatu’ was not our song, it was the song of the people of India. It gave us an avenue for the Oscars,” Charan told reporters at the airport.
At the 95th Academy Awards, the foot-tapping chartbuster “Naatu Naatu”, composed by MM Keeravaani and penned by Chandrabose, made the Telugu feature film the first Indian production to bring home the golden statuette.
The song was also performed at the Oscars ceremony by singers Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj.
Directed by SS Rajamouli, RRR is a pre-independence fictional story following two real-life Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR) in the 1920s.
Apart from the Telugu song, Netflix’s Tamil documentary The Elephant Whisperers, directed by debutante Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, also became the maiden Indian production to win in the Documentary Short Film category.
