Very rarely do people wake up on a Monday morning in a celebratory mood. But Indians across the globe had a reason to celebrate on Monday, March 13, when the 95th Academy Awards were announced and the hugely popular ‘Naatu Naatu’ song from Telugu blockbuster RRR won the award for the best original song. Following the announcement, news channels and social media were filled with congratulatory posts and visuals of the award ceremony, where music composer MM Keeravani, while accepting the award said, “I grew up listening to the Carpenters. And now, here I am, with the Oscars.”
While news channels across the country covered this moment widely, a certain section of the Malayalam media misheard the composer’s speech — or they took it too literally. When Keeravani said that he grew up listening to the Carpenters, he was referring to the popular American pop band ‘The Carpenters’. The award winning composer even sang a couple of lines to the tune of one of the band’s famous tracks, ‘Top of the World’, and said: “There was only one wish on my mind, so was Rajamouli's and my family's. RRR has to win, pride of every Indian and must put me on the top of the world."
"Naatu Naatu" from #RRR wins Best Original Song at the #Oscars. https://t.co/ndiKiHfmID pic.twitter.com/d7ZSoRps2d
— Variety (@Variety) March 13, 2023
But certain Malayalam media outlets mistook this as him literally growing up listening to carpenters – people who do woodwork. While many of the major Malayalam portals reported that Keeravani grew up listening to carpentry work, a reporter of a Malayalam news channel, while reporting live, went to the extent of saying, “Keeravani picked up music listening to the beats and tunes of carpenters of the forest.”
Here’s the original song ‘Top of the world’ by The Carpenters:
And while we’re at it, here’s a video of the live performance of Naatu Naatu at the Oscars:
Here's the energetic performance of "Naatu Naatu" from #RRR at the #Oscars. https://t.co/ndiKiHeOT5 pic.twitter.com/Lf2nP826c4
— Variety (@Variety) March 13, 2023
The 95th Academy Awards ceremony was held on Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The other four nominees in the best original song category are ‘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.