Last week, SS Rajamouli's Telugu-language epic action drama 'RRR' created history after the movie's song 'Naatu Naatu' won a Golden Globe award in the Best Original Song category. The team was also nominated in the Best Non-English Language Film category but missed out. The 'RRR' team is now eyeing an Oscars nomination and is campaigning for the film in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Pan Nalin's 'Last Film Show' has been sent as India's official Oscars entry for the Best International Film category. While many questioned why the massively successful film 'RRR' was not chosen as India's official entry to the Academy Awards, 'Baahubali' producer Shobu Yarlagadda explained the Oscars nomination and the winning process in a viral Twitter thread.
On Saturday, Mr Yarlagadda tweeted, ''With Oscar buzz picking up in India, I thought I will take a moment and attempt to highlight the several steps to the final Oscar win! Here's the thread.''
Mr Yarlagadda explained that the first step is eligibility. For a movie to be eligible for an Oscars nomination, it should be ''publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theatre in one of the six qualifying U.S. metro areas, for a theatrical qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days in the same commercial motion picture theatre during which period screenings must occur at least three times daily, with at least one screening beginning between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily.''
He then explained that more than 300 films from across the world met these criteria including several Indian films like 'RRR', 'Kantara', 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', 'The Kashmir Files', 'Me Vasantrao', 'Tuzhya Sathi Kahi Hi', 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect', 'Iravin Nizha'l, & 'Vikrant Rona'. However, these films are announced in a list called "reminder list" and are eligible for all categories except Best International Feature Film.
''For Best International Feature Film Category, each country has sent in one film as its entry. Over 80 countries sent in their films for competition to this category and India's entry was 'Chello,'' he wrote.
Mr Yarlagadda further wrote that the Academy announces a short list of 10 categories, like ''Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short, International Feature, Makeup And Hairstyling, Music, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Sound'', which was released on December 21. ''From India #RRR #NatuNatu (Original Song), "Chello" (International feature film) and "All that Breathes" (Documentary Short Film) made it to the shortlist,'' he tweeted.
''On Jan 24th final nominations of 5 films will be announced for all categories except for Best Film which has 10 films in the nominations,'' he further tweeted. The producer then noted that all active and life members of the Academy vote on these nominated films in each category and the winners take home the Oscars.
'RRR' has been produced by DVV Entertainment and stars Ram Charan in the role of Alluri Sitarama Raju and Jr NTR as Komaram Bheem. The film has collected Rs 1,200 crore globally. The nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on January 24. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12, 2023, at Los Angeles' Dolly Theatre.
