‘RRR’ Star Ram Charan speaks to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’: The craze around the SS Rajamouli-directed and stupendously mounted action epic RRR has been the talk of the town in the western media ever since its debut on Netflix on May 20th of the prior year. Unlike earlier Indian releases, the craze around RRR grew to such an extent that it led to special event screenings in theatres and a massive word of mouth amongst western audiences and industry insiders.
Such an upswell finally led to “Naatu Naatu,” a chart-busting dance number among musical numbers and imaginative set-pieces, to be nominated in the Best Original Song Category for the 2023 Academy Awards. “RRR” star Ram Charan, who plays Alluri Sitarama Raju, a revolutionary leader who uses his position as a mole within the Indian Imperial Police to arm his former village against the British Raj ultimately, is one-half of the protagonist duo, the latter being Komaram Bheem, played by NTR Jr.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Ram Charan supplies his own belief about the widespread success of RRR, “Cinema itself has a unique way of transcending countries and languages. So RRR just shows that cinema has only one language, and that is emotion”. The emotional resonance is universal, and that contributed to its widespread success. Ram Charan also believes that the success of RRR helped to blur the delineation that had existed among the different film industries in India, be it Tollywood (Telugu), Bollywood (Hindi), Sandalwood (Kannada), and others. The imaginary boundaries are gradually disappearing, and the Indian film industry as a whole is beginning to take shape.
When asked whether he would be interested in working in American Cinema and the potential for an American and Indian cinema crossover, Ram Charan jumped at the opportunity. He proclaims Quentin Tarantino as the filmmaker he would love to work with as he is the actor’s favorite, the love stemming from Tarantino’s “quirky, out of the box” style. He also affirms Christopher Nolan’s popularity amongst the film community while also expressing a desire to dip his toes into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it is “a huge franchise in India” and his own huge personal fandom for the character of Tony Stark. The Mission Impossible Franchise is another populist franchise that holds Charan’s interest.
When asked whether American Blockbusters feel dull in comparison after having worked in RRR, Ram Charan disagreed, elaborating on how Top Gun Maverick moved him. The spectacle rested not just on the jets but also on the emotion accompanying those moments. He also remarked on the “mob reaction” in theatres, which amplifies the communal experience. Ram Charan concludes by stating that Top Gun Maverick still shows that Hollywood can construct emotionally resonant blockbusters and “are rocking it.”
