Shortly after SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ scripted history at the 95th Academy Awards on March 13, the film’s scriptwriter and Rajya Sabha MP, V Vijayendra Prasad, called it a moment of triumph for the entire film fraternity of India.
One of the individuals Prime Minister Narendra Modi nominated for nomination to the Upper House of Parliament in 2022 was V Vijayendra Prasad, who also happens to be the father of film director SS Rajamouli. In an exclusive interview Vijayendra Prasad said, “I got a call on July 6 from the PMO saying they want to entrust me with some responsibility. However, till the time I received the phone call, I had no clue that I was being nominated to the Rajya Sabha. On July 7, I received another call from the PMO, with the caller saying that Modi-ji wanted to speak to me. Modi-ji started speaking in Hindi but I told him that my Hindi isn’t that good. He then started speaking in fluent English and offered me a Rajya Sabha seat. He said, ‘The President wants to offer you a seat in the RS’.”
On ‘RRR’ bagging the coveted golden statute at the awards gala in Los Angeles for the chartbuster ‘Natu, Natu’, continuing its golden streak since bagging the Golden Globe back in January, Prasad said, “For long, I had wished for our movies to make waves in Hollywood. Despite having such rich content, we could never really find a foothold beyond Indian shores. That our film made it to the Oscars and won an award is a moment of triumph for the entire film fraternity of India. Our entire film fraternity can and should celebrate this moment of glory because we have, at last, been able to showcase the wealth of talent that we possess. It is such a vast market out there.”
Sharing his upcoming projects, Prasad said a sequel to ‘RRR’ is in the works.
“Sometimes my son (Rajamouli) asks me in what aspects is India the richest in the world. I tell him that our country’s richness lies in our storytelling. My son had a conversation with acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who told him never to compromise on our culture of storytelling. We will be making a sequel to RRR,” he said.
‘Naatu Naatu’ has had a glory run across awards galas in recent months. The song won the Golden Globe Award for “Best Original Song” before competing for an Oscar in January.
Five days later, at the 28th edition of the Critics Choice Awards, “RRR” bagged two additional honours: one for ‘best song’ and the other for ‘best foreign language film.’
