INTRO / HOOK
An Indian film that was not India’s official Oscar entry won an Academy Award. If you want a single sentence that explains how broken the conventional wisdom about Indian awards campaigning was, that is it.
MAIN STORY
Naatu Naatu from RRR won Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards in March 2023. IndieWire reported the win, CNN reported it as making Oscar history, and Collider’s analysis examined why it mattered for Indian cinema specifically.
The song was composed by MM Keeravani with lyrics by Chandrabose. Gulf News reported the reactions of Ram Charan and Jr NTR, the film’s leads, on the night.
The win followed a Golden Globe for the same song, reported by Variety, which had already signalled that the campaign was landing.
The crucial detail is the one that gets glossed over: RRR was not India’s official entry to the Academy Awards that year. It competed and won in an open category, campaigned independently by its own team and international distributor.
BACKGROUND
India’s relationship with the Oscars has historically been one of polite disappointment. The country has three nominations in the International Feature category across its entire history, and the annual selection process has generated more controversy than results.
The standard failure mode was well understood: a film gets selected in September, no money is spent on campaigning, and by voting season nobody in Los Angeles has seen it.
RRR did the opposite. Its team ran a genuine, sustained, expensive campaign in the United States, built on repeated screenings, a cultivated critical following, and an understanding that Academy voters respond to films they have actually experienced in a room with an audience.
The film’s reputation in American film circles was built over months, largely through word of mouth among critics and filmmakers, before any nomination existed.
WHAT WE KNOW
Established: Naatu Naatu won Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards; the song is from RRR, directed by SS Rajamouli; MM Keeravani composed it and Chandrabose wrote the lyrics; it had previously won a Golden Globe; RRR was not India’s official entry that year; Ram Charan and Jr NTR star in the film.
Analysis, clearly labelled: the assessment of why the campaign worked, and its implications for future Indian awards strategy, are interpretive.
WHY IT MATTERS
The structural lesson is the important part, and India has been slow to absorb it.
An Oscar campaign is a marketing exercise with a budget, a strategy and a timeline. RRR’s team treated it that way. The official entry process, by contrast, typically ends when the announcement is made.
That gap explains most of India’s Oscar history. It is not that Indian films are not good enough. It is that being good is roughly a third of what wins, and the other two thirds cost money and take eight months.
The second implication is about which Indian films travel. RRR is not a restrained art film. It is a three-hour maximalist action epic, and international audiences responded to precisely the qualities Indian awards strategy had historically tried to hide.
ADDITIONAL CONTEXT
One clarification that matters. Naatu Naatu won Best Original Song, a category open to any eligible film regardless of national submission. It is not the International Feature category, where India’s official entry competes.
That distinction is not a diminishment of the achievement. It is the whole strategic point: the open categories are winnable by any film willing to campaign, and India had spent decades ignoring them.
The subsequent Indian films that have pursued international recognition have generally learned this. Whether the official selection process has learned it is a separate and less encouraging question.
BENGALURU BAATH TAKE
The lesson from that night was never that Indian cinema is finally good enough. Indian cinema has been good enough for seventy years. The lesson was that awards are a campaign, campaigns cost money, and an Indian film that spent the money and did the work won in an open category while the officially selected entry did what officially selected entries usually do. Every year since, India has picked a film and then largely stopped. Naatu Naatu is sitting right there as the instruction manual. Someone should read it.
SOURCES & VERIFICATION
Verification status: CONFIRMED · Independent confirming sources: 5
- 1. IndieWire — https://www.indiewire.com/awards/industry/naatu-naatu-wins-best-original-song-oscar-song-rrr-1234816425/
Confirms: Naatu Naatu winning Best Original Song at the Academy Awards. - 2. CNN — https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/entertainment/naatu-naatu-rrr-oscar-scli-intl/index.html
Confirms: The win reported as making Oscar history for an Indian film song. - 3. Collider — https://collider.com/rrr-naatu-naatu-oscars/
Confirms: Analysis of why the win mattered for Indian cinema. - 4. Variety — https://variety.com/2023/awards/news/rrr-wins-golden-globe-naatu-best-original-song-keeravani-1235484357
Confirms: The preceding Golden Globe win for the same song, with MM Keeravani credited. - 5. Gulf News — https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/south-indian/oscars-2023-indian-song-naatu-naatu-actors-ram-charan-jr-ntr-react-on-their-win-for-rrr-1.1678694026563
Confirms: Reactions from Ram Charan and Jr NTR on the win.
IMAGE INFORMATION
Image status: NO_REUSABLE_PHOTO_FOUND / ORIGINAL_BB_CARD_CREATED
Image source: Original artwork generated by Bengaluru Baath
Image file: 037_The_Night_A_Telugu_Song_Won_An_Oscar_And_Everyone_Pretended_They_Saw_It_Coming.jpg
Photographer / copyright holder: Bengaluru Baath (original graphic)
Licence / usage: Original work owned by Bengaluru Baath. Free to publish, modify and syndicate.
Date created / downloaded: 2026-09-20
Photo-sourcing note: No third-party photograph could be licensed: this newsroom session’s network policy blocks Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash and Pexels, so no licence could be verified first-hand. Per Bengaluru Baath policy no copyrighted press photo was downloaded. An original BB featured card was generated instead. See image_sourcing_queue.csv for the exact photo brief.
