Art & Entertainment

Oscars Host Jimmy Kimmel Terms ‘RRR’ A ‘Bollywood Movie; Fans React, ‘It’s Indian Cinema’

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel called ‘RRR’ a ‘Bollywood movie’ in his opening monologue, and it left a lot of netizens furious. 

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Jimmy Kimmel; Ram Charan in 'RRR
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'Naatu Naatu' from the S.S. Rajamouli's directorial 'RRR' has certainly become a global sensation. After clinching the honour for the Best Original Song at the Golden Globe Award and at the Critics' Choice Awards, it won in the Best Original Song category at the 95th Academy Awards as well. The song has been composed by M.M. Keeravani, who is the cousin of Rajamouli.

At the 95th Academy Awards, ceremony host Jimmy Kimmel, who was hosting Oscars for the third time, said that if the winners go overboard with their speech, they would be surrounded by a group of dancers shaking their legs to 'Naatu Naatu'. 

But since he called ‘RRR’ a ‘Bollywood movie’ in his opening monologue, it left a lot of netizens furious, who pointed out that it was not the case, as ‘RRR’ is a Telugu-language Indian film. 

While one user commented, “RRR is South Indian cinema, a Telugu film, Tollywood. Not Bollywood, as some Oscars ppl might be saying!” another tweeted out, “India has different film industries for different languages…Bollywood means Hindi language film industry…since Hindi is the most spoken language in India Bollywood is more popular..RRR is a Telugu language film from south part of India (sic).”

Another fan wrote, “Ooh… #Oscars just love controversies and conflicts. Referring to #RRR as a Bollywood film even after hearing that the creators are promoting it as an Indian film for months.” 

Check out the tweets here:

Besides ‘Naatu Naatu,’ Kartiki Gonsalves-directed documentary short ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, backed by Guneet Monga, walked away with the golden statuette in the category.

Coming to 'RRR', the film stars NTR Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt and Shriya Saran. It is historical fiction and tells the fictional story of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem.