Jason Blum is predicting this year’s Best Picture winner.
The Blumhouse founder and “M3GAN” mega-producer tweeted that S.S. Rajamouli’s historical epic “RRR” will take home the 2023 Oscar for Best Picture.
“I’m going with ‘RRR’ winning best pic,” Blum tweeted. “You heard it here first. Mark it down, please. If I’m right, I am awarding myself my own Oscar.”
Blum added, “It’s RRR time. Don’t miss it. And no I’m not involved in any way. Nor do I know anyone associated with the movie. Just see it.”
“RRR” centers on real-life revolutionaries Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr., known as NTR Jr) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan), who fight for freedom from the British in the 1920s. Yet the Telugu-language epic was snubbed by India during the Oscar submissions, with the Film Federation of India instead endorsing the autobiographical drama “Last Film Show” about a young boy’s love of movies.
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn criticized the Indian Academy for doing “what it usually does: Ignore the hype and go with its own preferences.” Since only three Indian films have been nominated across 65 years, Kohn speculated that “RRR” is set to make (more) history for the Indian filmmaking industry.
Kohn wrote, “India has a tendency to avoid submitting films that reflect the cultural specificity of Bollywood and Tollywood narratives, with their genre-busting exuberance and musical expressivity. That may have been the biggest hurdle for ‘RRR’ from the start and its final undoing in this process. (Others have theorized that the way the movie appears to embrace Hindu nationalism, thus rendering Muslims as the enemy, was more than a little problematic on the homefront.) But the breakout success of ‘RRR’ in the U.S. inspired Rajamouli and his producing team to launch an awards campaign ahead of the submission process, financed by his own production company.”
Director Rajamouli told IndieWire that while he has “never thought” about the Oscar campaign process, he is open to “RRR” being in the running for the iconic awards ceremony.
“Obviously, for an Indian filmmaker the Oscar is a very, very big deal. Everyone dreams about it,” the filmmaker said. “But only a few times have we had a chance to be nominated. Whatever has happened so far with this film has happened completely organically, and that has given us the encouragement to go further.”
A sequel to “RRR” is currently in the works from Rajamouli and his screenwriter father, V. Vijayendra Prasad.
Source: Read Full Article