Jaya Bachchan on RRR song Naatu Naatu’s Oscar win: ‘Doesn’t matter south or north, they are Indians’
Should Telugu film RRR be labelled as a south Indian movie or an Indian film? This is what parliamentarians debated in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Veteran actor and politician Jaya Bachchan responded to a section of leaders crediting ‘south India’ for the Oscar win of RRR song Naatu Naatu and the documentary The Elephant Whisperers, which is based in Tamil Nadu. Jaya called ‘film folks’ the ‘most important ambassadors of this country’ and said it doesn’t matter where they come from north, east, south, or west, ‘they are Indians’.
After some leaders from regional political parties brought forth north India versus south India debate post Naatu Naatu’s Oscar win, Jaya Bachchan shared her thoughts on the matter. Jaya said, “I am so happy and I am so glad that we are discussing the most important ambassadors of this country. And they are the film folks.
It doesn’t matter where they are from – north, east, south or west – they are Indians… I stand here with pride and with dignity for our film fraternity, who have represented this country number of times, have won number of awards starting from Satyajit Ray onwards.
“I also want to contribute and say I know Mr SS Rajamouli very well… The writer (KV Vijayendra Prasad), he is not just the scriptwriter, he is also the story writer as well, he is a member of this House (Rajya Sabha). And it is a great honour. There have been many, many such people from the creative world, who have been nominated here in this House earlier and today as well,” Jaya further said.
The veteran actor then said, “Main kehna chahti hoon ki yeh shuruyat hai, aur main Bharat ki janta ko dhanyawad dena chahti hoon jinke khatir videsh ke log aaj humari janta ko recognise kar rahe hai (This is just the beginning and I would like to congratulate the Indian population, because of whom people in the West are recognising great work by Indian filmmakers). The market of cinema is here, it is not in America.”
India made history at the 95th Academy Awards held on 12 March (March 13 in India) as the best song Oscar was awarded to Naatu Naatu and best documentary short film was awarded to Guneet Monga and Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers.
Naatu Naatu from the period film RRR, helmed by SS Rajamouli, has been composed by MM Keeravani. Naatu Naatu, picturised on Jr NTR and Ram Charan, was the first Indian song to be nominated at the Oscars.