All the Things We Got to Know About 'RRR', Courtesy International Interviews

From the Tarantino connection to why did Rajamouli tortured the two actors, the lesser-known BTS stories of RRR.

On Wednesday, 11th January, India woke up to the phenomenal news of RRR's 'Naatu Naatu' winning India's first Golden Globe for an 'Original Song'. The film is directed by SS Rajamouli.

This historical win by the film has not only put the Telugu film industry on a global map, but also has attracted a massive amount of audience who is curious about everything that went into the making of this spectacle-of-a-film.

While the craze for the movie had already taken over the entire country upon its release, no one — including SS Rajamouli or the actors  N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan — had anticipated the fanfare, love, and success, the film has received on the global platform.

Having won critics' choice awards in multiple categories across the globe, the cast and director of RRR have been traveling throughout the world gaining appreciation and love from the people. During these visits, the filmmaker and actors have revealed many never-heard-before experiences from the sets.

Here are some of the best picks:

The Story Behind the Title RRR

Much like the movie, the title RRR has interesting origins. In an interview with the American TV host, Seth Meyers, on his Late Night with Seth Meyers, Rajamouli revealed that the name RRR was used as a placeholder till the actual title was decided. RRR signified the coming together of Rajamouli, Ram Charan, and N. T. Rama Rao Jr.

However, once they announced the movie with that title, the audiences and the distributors were quite happy with it. So, the filmmaker decided to go ahead with it, and asked the audience to come up with a full form with the same acronym. That's how Roudhram, Ranam, Rudhiram or Rise, Roar, Revolt came to be!

The Tarantino Connection

In the same interview with Seth Meyers, Rajamouli spoke about how the Quentin Tarantino's film The Inglorious Bastards served as inspiration behind RRR and how he used the two real-life characters of Bheem and A. Rama Raju to weave a fictional tale of friendship and patriotism.

He said, "When I saw Inglourious Basterds in the theatres and when Hitler was suddenly shot with a machine gun, I thought, ‘Wow. This is really wow.' We know he did not die that way but it is fiction. It is a fictional movie and you can take liberties with that".

The Bromance off Set

One of the main themes of the movie was the unadulterated and pure friendship between Bheem and Rama, and during a Q&A session at the Directors Guild of America Theatre, NTR Jr. and Rajamouli gave us a glimpse of how it was the off-screen chemistry between the two actors that got translated on camera.

Rajamouli narrated how both the actors are friends in real life as well and he jokingly recalled that together they would cause mischief on sets and stall the shoot as well.

He said, "Working with them together is (like) hell. They would create so much of nonsense on the sets. They were like kids, making so much mischief. My shooting would stall for so much of time when they were together."

Why Shooting For 'Naatu Naatu' Was Extremely Difficult

As brilliant as the song that won the 'Golden Globe' looked on-screen, shooting for the same was really difficult, recalled NTR Jr. He said in an interview that, "the dance was shot during the last leg of the film", but prior to that for almost 65 nights, both Ram Charan and he were 'tortured' because of the action sequences, where both of them had to hit each other to make the fight look more convincing.

He said, "We’ve done complicated steps, but 'Naatu Naatu' is not about the steps being complicated, it was the synchronisation, which Rajamouli stressed on.”

NTR Jr. went on to explain the long process and meticulous effort that went into making the marvellous song. He added, "You know, we shot that song for about 12 days. Thanks to Ukraine, the sun would rise up at six and set at nine in the night. So, this man would torture us from eight to eight and then he'll get us back to the room and make us wear tees and tracks, make us rehearse for another one hour and we would probably sleep at 11:30, wake up at 5:30 am and again run to shoot. And this happened after 7 days of rehearsals already."

Undoubtedly, their effort and Rajamouli's vision paid off and we saw a beautiful and powerful choreography that symbolised the friendship between the two characters.