Oscars 2023: SS Rajamouli discusses Naatu Naatu’s costumes, choreography and more

With the Oscars ceremony being held on March 12, many fans are rooting for RRR’s song Naatu Naatu to win Best Original Song. Director SS Rajamouli recently revisited the making of the song to break down how exactly the team laboured to bring the viral and exuberant song to life. The Telugu film song has been composed by MM Keeravani and written by Chandrabose. Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, who have sung the dance number, will be performing the song at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday.

Rajamouli revealed that while he planned to shoot the song in India, it didn’t work out eventually. His team scouted the perfect location for the song and landed in Kiev. The director shared that he was quite particular about making sure that actual dancers and musicians were in the background to make the song look even more authentic and incorporate the space.

The viral dance steps were choreographed by Prem Rakshith who had worked with Rajamouli and lead actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR before. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Rajamouli discussed the steps of the popular song featuring Ram and NTR. He said, “[Prem] gave one of the most memorable numbers for both of them. He knows their style, exactly what their body language is. He exactly knows what their fans expect out of them. Here he has a very difficult job because here both the actors have to dance together, each of them has their own style but he has to find out a style, which will suit both of them. A dancing style which would be not complicated because I also wanted him to figure out steps which people would like to do themselves.”

Prem, along with Rajamouli’s wife, costume designer Rama Rajamouli, made sure to use the actors’ costumes into the dance steps as well. The costume team had to keep two-three outfits for the dancers as they were dancing on a dusty ground and had to clean them delicately afterwards. Prem also had the idea to use the suspenders into an innovative step involving NTR and Ram. The director had told Prem that while this was a fun, dance number, according to the narrative of the film, it is also a fight scene.

The filmmaker added, “For me, Naatu Naatu one of the reasons why I think it is such a hit is not just because of the music, not just because of the dance, because there is a beautiful story in itself. The entire story of RRR is within that 10 minutes of Naatu Naatu lead scene and the complete song. No one in America or across the world really knows the meaning of the lyrics but it is the catchiness of the lyric, the way, the flows. I think the credit should be given to Chandrabose, the lyricist.”

Rajamouli also went on to add that while the lead actors were “exceptionally good dancers”, they also nailed the complex emotions of the song to audience the way that he wanted them to. RRR, which released worldwide on March 25, 2022, also stars Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody and Olivia Morris.