Ever since the release of RRR in March 2022, the popular song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from the film has created quite the buzz both in Telugu households and other parts of the country. The song went on to bag the coveted Oscars in the Best Original Song category at a grand ceremony held on March 12 at Los Angeles. It had earlier won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in January. ‘Naatu Naatu’ was composed by MM Keeravani and penned by Chandra Bose. It was sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, who also performed the song live at the 95th Academy Awards stage.
As the country celebrates the song’s win, here are six interesting things about the making of Naatu Naatu:
In RRR, the song comes when Bheem, a character played by Jr NTR is humiliated by a British person. Director Rajamouli, in a video done for Vanity Fair, said that the song is actually a fight scene in the story. “Even though for the audience, this is a song where they are dancing and it is fun, in the story, it is actually a fight scene. The song starts off as a fight scene with an Englishman insulting them. But since both of them are on a mission, they cannot engage in a fight and blow their covers. It moves into a kind of competition. Even as the audience is watching a song, the emotions of a fight are conveyed to them.” Rajamouli added that this was the instruction given to choreographer Prem Rakshith, which is visible in the body language of the characters.
Choreographer Prem Rakshthi came up with about 100 steps for the signature hook step for ‘Naatu Naatu’. Rajamouli selected a couple of them and finalised what we saw on screen.
The song was shot in the presidential palace of Ukraine at Kyiv, which is officially called as Meriinsky Palace. This is where the president of the country usually receives his counterparts. Rajamouli revealed that the song was supposed to happen in India. However, as it was monsoon here, the team scouted for locations abroad and finalised on Mariinsky.
The song was shot for around 17 days in the palace, with about 1000 artists working each day. While there were at least 300-400 onscreen artists, the others were working off screen. It is estimated that the song alone cost around Rs 15 crores.
The Indian artists in the song playing waiters are Indian medical students studying in Ukraine. It was a big challenge for the team to get 150 Indians in a foreign country, which prompted them to speak to the Indian medical students’ groups to get the job done.
The song was shot in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in August 2021, when the possibility of contracting COVID-19 made it a high risk situation.
Watch Naatu Naatu song here: