S.S. Rajamouli credits Netflix with exposing his Tollywood blockbuster to global audiences.
One of Netflix’s most surprising successes in 2022 has been “RRR,” S.S. Rajamouli’s sprawling Tollywood epic about the unlikely friendship between two Indian revolutionaries. From intricately choreographed dance numbers and CGI lions to copious amounts of memorable bromance moments, the film truly has everything an audience could want. See the article : Netflix is canceling one of its longest-running series. And while it was always destined to be a blockbuster in India, it also found a huge global audience when it started streaming on Netflix. At this point, the film has surpassed everyone’s expectations, including Rajamouli’s.
“Yes, I was surprised by the reception in the West,” Rajamouli said in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. “A good story is a good story for everybody, but I didn’t think I could make movies for Western sensibilities. I never believed myself. So when it came out on Netflix and people started watching it and word of mouth started to spread, when the critics started giving good reviews, yeah, I was really, really surprised.”
The comments were made as part of a conversation between Rajamouli and Joe and Anthony Russo, who recently directed “The Gray Man” for Netflix. The three men responsible for some of the biggest blockbusters of the century so far, discussed the challenges and benefits of large-scale filmmaking.
“I think you’ve seen over the last decade [that] action movies have become more popular,” Anthony Russo said. “And the kinds of things like comedy, sometimes things that are specific to cultural sensitivity or understanding … they haven’t been as popular as they once were. And I think that speaks to the fact that acting is a language that connects the global audience in a strong way.”
The Russo brothers clearly think Rajamouli is quite good at speaking the language of global action, as they both had nothing but praise for his work on ‘RRR’.
“What I think is so incredible about [‘RRR’] is the emotion it evokes, combined with the acting,” Joe Russo said. “And I would say that in five years [digital distribution] has probably done more for diversity and access to diverse and international films than Hollywood has done in 50 years.”
“RRR” is now streaming on Netflix.
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