India celebrates historic Golden Globe award for best original song ‘Naatu Naatu’

The Telugu language film RRR from India won its first Golden Globe as it picked up Best Original Song for ‘Naatu Naatu,’ catchy musical number by veteran composer M.M. Keeravani, beating Taylor Swift and Rihanna.

The category was presented by Wednesday star Jenna Ortega and the composer Keeravani said he was thrilled by the track’s global success. He also said that the award actually belonged to filmmaker SS Rajamouli who he called his ‘brother.’

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In the Best Original Song category, ‘Naatu Naatu’ was competing against – ‘Carolina’ (Taylor Swift) from Where the Crawdads Sing, ‘Ciao Papa’ (Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, and Guillermo del Toro) – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, ‘Hold My Hand’ (Lady Gaga, BloodPop, and Benjamin Rice) – Top Gun: Maverick and ‘Lift Me Up’ (Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Göransson) – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The film RRR was also nominated for Best Non-English Language Film, but lost to Argentina’s Argentina, 1985.

Written and directed by SS Rajamouli, RRR, which stands for ‘Rise, Roar, Revolt,’ is a historical fantasy that tells the story of two revolutionaries -- played by superstars Ram Charan and Jr. NTR -- who fight against British rule in India.

Back home in India, several people expressed their joy at the news.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the composer and the whole team behind RRR in a tweet. “A very special accomplishment!... This prestigious honour has made every Indian very proud.”

Music composer AR Rahman, who was the first Indian to win a Golden Globe in Best Score category for the 2009 film Slumdog Millionaire, congratulated the team of RRR for bringing home the 80th Golden Globe award for the song ‘Naatu Naatu.’

Rahman took to Instagram, where he shared a clip of Jenna Ortega announcing ‘Naatu Naatu’ as the winner. He also tweeted: "Incredible ..Paradigm shift,” and congratulated the team.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan wrote on Twitter that he “woke up and started dancing to Naatu Naatu” to celebrate the news.

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