HistoRRRic Win: Naatu Naatu's Golden Globes victory puts Indian music on world map like AR Rahman's Jai Ho

As Jenna Ortega took the stage at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in California to announce the winner for Best Original song at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, team RRR with SS Rajamouli, Ram Charan and Jr NTR waited anxiously while the nominee montage played. This included pop sensations Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. When Naatu Naatu was announced the winner, composer MM Keeravaani erupted in joy. After a brief celebration, he made his way to the stage to accept the honour. “It has been an age-old practice to say this award belongs to someone else. I was planning not to say those words but I am going to repeat the tradition…this award belongs to my brother SS Rajamouli and his vision”. As Keeravaani thanked Rajamouli and co, the music cut him off rather unceremoniously as the playback singer-cum-composer struggled to finish his speech. The moment wasn’t pleasant to watch as one rarely sees the winners of Best Actor (who happen to be predominantly White Men) being cut off in the middle of their speech. Of course, the air-time for every award show is limited and given how lengthy the speeches can get, the music is a necessity to prompt the winners to keep it short. But somehow, it is always the winners in technical categories — sound, music and editing who face the brunt of this. Regardless, the win was celebrated with much furor on Twitter and Oscar winner AR Rahman too congratulated Keeravaani Garu for making history.

And the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG Goes to #NaatuNaatu #GoldenGlobes  #GoldenGlobes2023  #RRRMovie

pic.twitter.com/CGnzbRfEPk

— RRR Movie (@RRRMovie) January 11, 2023

MM Keeravaani’s #GoldenGlobes2023 acceptance Speech!! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 #RRRMovie #NaatuNaatu pic.twitter.com/9q7DY7Pn5G

— RRR Movie (@RRRMovie) January 11, 2023

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Beyond token gestures and reductive wins The first Indian film to go ‘global’ was V Shantaram’s Do Aankhen Barah Haath which had made history when it won the equivalent of the Best Non-English Language Film in 1957. Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi won the Globe in the same category, even though it wasn’t a foreign production. Decades later, _Naatu Naatu_’s Best Song win is oddly reminiscent of Rahman’s Jai Ho at the 81st Academy Awards, where it won Best Original Song. _Jai Ho’_s 2009 win made the number a household anthem. From Dev Patel and Freida Pinto dancing to the peppy track at the Ellen Show to Pussycat Dolls creating a remixed version with AR Rahman (and subsequently performing it at Britney Spears’ Circus tour), Jai Ho gained recognition and widespread acceptance in the US. While this put Rahman and Indian music on the World map, a fall out of the same was Jai Ho becoming the token Indian song — similar to how Slumdog Millionaire became a representative of all things ‘Indian’ for the West. India or Indians are not a monolith. Neither do us Indians need the validation of White men, unless, of course, it is an award like the Oscars which is voted for by a diverse jury and now, the Globes which have made a comeback after they were practically boycotted by Hollywood stars. While Slumdog and subsequently _Jai Ho’_s victory gave Indian music international recognition, it also reduced West’s idea of India to narrow, regressive stereotypes. This is why an Indian film or a song winning at the Oscars or Golden Globes is a double-edged sword. It comes with recognition but also ends up reducing India’s culture to specific tropes which play out in the film. Responsible cultural representation A question we Indians must ask ourselves each time a film wins big at an international platform — do we really need the West’s validation to concur that our cinema is of great value? The win. of course, is worthy of celebration — it takes intense campaigning, soliciting screeners and hard work by the team — actors, directors to get their film nominated for Globes or Oscars. This, when RRR wasn’t even chosen as India’s official entry to Oscars. Now that Naatu Naatu has won, it is now more likely that the song will make its way to viral TikTok videos and Instagram Reels — there might as well be a new challenge that young content creators can emulate to increase engagement. Over the last week, director SS Rajamouli, actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR made multiple appearances at events, screenings and late night talk shows to chat about RRR and Naatu Naatu. The appearances saw actors break into impromptu performances that took the hosts and audience by surprise. Amid the furor, dance and viral TikToks it is important that the West doesn’t repeat the mistake of stereotyping Indians based on one film viz. the Slumdog effect and is responsible in its projection of Indian culture.

Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75.  Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News,  India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.