Ram Charan, Wife Upasana Say First Baby To Be Born In India

Ram Charan, Wife Upasana Say First Baby To Be Born In India

‘RRR’ actor Ram Charan and his wife Upasana Konidela are all set to welcome their first child soon.

Recently, speculations had arisen on social media that the couple might be planning to welcome their firstborn in the USA after Charan arrived on the daytime talk show Good Morning America.
However, Upasna took to Twitter to clarify that their first baby’s delivery will take place in India.

Expressing her enthusiasm for this new phase in her life, Upasana shared, “I am thrilled to have our first baby delivered in our home country – India, surrounded by a world-class medical OB/GYN team at The Apollo Hospitals, including Dr Sumana Manohar, Dr Rooma Sinha and now Dr Jennifer Ashton from the Good Morning America Show. This journey holds many exciting experiences for us and we look forward to this new phase in our lives with great anticipation.”

A few weeks before attending the 95th Academy Awards in March, Charan appeared on the daytime talk show Good Morning America, where he talked about RRR’s mega success. He also opened up about becoming a father.

When one of the show hosts, medical correspondent Jennifer Ashton, asked Charan, “How much new-dad fear you have?”, the star replied, “All these years when we didn’t plan (the kids), I’m pretty much available to my wife. But right now I’m just packing and unpacking.”

Later on, he had a funny banter with Jennifer who happened to be a gynaecologist as well.

“I am glad I met you. I will be taking your number. My wife is going to be in the US for a while,” Ram Charan quipped.

To this, Jennifer said, “It would be an honour to deliver your baby.”

Ram Charan and his wife Upasana announced their pregnancy in December 2022.

“With the blessings of Shri Hanuman Ji, we are delighted to share that Upasana & Ram Charan are expecting their first child. With love & gratitude Surekha & Chiranjeevi Konideli, Shobana & Anil Kamineni (sic),” the couple announced. (ANI)

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‘RRR’ Wins Big At Hollywood Critics Association Award

‘RRR’ Wins Big At Hollywood Critics Association Award

‘RRR’ is truly unstoppable!

After winning the Critics’ Choice and Golden Globes, ‘RRR’ has now beaten Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ at the Hollywood Critics Association Film Awards.
Not just that, ‘RRR’ bagged two other awards in the ‘Best Original Song’ and ‘Best Stunts’ categories.

Film’s director SS Rajamouli ecstatically accepted the award on behalf of the team and made quite an impressive address.

He said, “I think I need to go backstage and check…I think I’ll be starting growing wings already…with the second one! Thank you so much it means a lot! I can’t express in words how much it means…”

He continued, “This is the ‘Best Action Film’ (award), we won the ‘Best Stunts’ (award), but probably the ‘Best Stunt’ (award) was for the best stunt choreographer…and…I really would have loved to have the stunt choreographers here to see this because I think that is the team that works so hard and puts their life on the line to entertain us. I think I’ll take this opportunity to ask all the major awards to make a special category for the stunt guys….stunt choreographers, they really, really deserve that! This is for all the stunt choreographers, not only in my country but across the world who really work hard to entertain us all.”

He concluded by thanking the Association – “Thank you HCA again! This really means a lot to me…thank you. Now, I’m flying!”

Check out his acceptance speech here:

‘RRR’ superstar Ram Charan was also present at the Awards ceremony and even presented an award.

With the win, fans have all their hopes pinned on an Oscar. Team ‘RRR’ is currently in Los Angeles and will be attending the Oscars on March 12. ‘RRR’ song ‘Naatu Naatu has been nominated for the Oscars in ‘Original Song’ category.

In January this year, ‘Naatu Naatu’ won the Golden Globes in the ‘Best Original Song’ category.

‘Naatu Naatu’ was nominated alongside Taylor Swift’s ‘Carolina’ from ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’, ‘Ciao Papa’ from ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’, Lady Gaga’s ‘Hold My Hand’ from ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and Rihanna’s ‘Lift Me Up’ from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’.

5 days later, ‘RRR’ bagged two more awards at the 28th edition of the Critics Choice Awards.

‘RRR’ starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan bagged the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Song for its track ‘Naatu Naatu’. It also picked up the ‘Critics’ choice award for ‘Best Foreign language film’ in a ceremony held in Los Angeles.

RRR is a fictional story based on the lives of two Telugu freedom fighters, Alluri Seetharama Raju and Komaram Bheem. Ram Charan and Jr NTR played lead roles, respectively. The film collected over Rs 1,200 crore worldwide. Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn and Shriya Saran also starred in the film.

This lyrical composition of ‘Naatu Naatu’ by MM Keeravani, high energy rendition by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, unique choreography by Prem Rakshith, and lyrics by Chandrabose are all the elements that make this ‘RRR’ mass anthem a perfect dance craze. (ANI)

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Historic Three Nominations For India At Oscar 2023

After the Oscar nominations were announced, every Indian’s heart was pumped with pride and joy as we secured three nominations this year.

First and foremost, of course, the much-celebrated music of ‘RRR’ made it to the Oscars race this year. The magnum opus film’s energy-packed track ‘Naatu Naatu’ made it to the nominations this year in the ‘Original Song’ category.

This lyrical composition of ‘Naatu Naatu’ by MM Keeravani, high energy rendition by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, unique choreography by Prem Rakshith, and lyrics by Chandrabose are all the elements that make this ‘RRR’ mass anthem a perfect dance craze.

The song is competing against ‘Applause’ from the film ‘Tell It Like A Woman,’ ‘Hold My Hand’ from the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘Lift me Up’ from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ and ‘This Is Life,’ from ‘Everything, Everywhere All At Once’.

Not just ‘Naatu Naatu’, two Indian documentaries also made it to the nominations this year – Shaunak Sen’s ‘All That Breathes’ and Kartiki Gonsalves’ ‘The Elephant Whisperers’.

‘All That Breathes’ has been nominated in the ‘Documentary Feature Film’ category against ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’, ‘Fire Of Love,’ ‘A House made of Splinters,’ and ‘Navalny’.

The film revolves around the lives of siblings Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who work out of their derelict basement in Delhi’s Wazirabad, to rescue and treat injured birds, especially the black kites.

‘The Elephant Whisperers’ has been nominated in the ‘Documentary Short Film Category’ against ‘Haul Out,’ ‘How Do You Measure A Year?’ ‘The Martha Mitchell Effect,’ and ‘Stranger At The Gate’.

The film’s plot revolves around a family who adopts two orphan baby elephants in Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

The Oscars are going to be held on March 13 this year and while the wait is going to be quite a long one from now, the nominations have sure lifted the spirits of not just the crew and cast of the films mentioned above, but also of everyone who hopes to see an Indian movie bagging the prestigious award. (ANI)

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RRR's 'Naatu Naatu' Wins Best Original Song At 2023 Golden Globes | Lokmarg

RRR’s ‘Naatu Naatu’ Wins Best Original Song At 2023 Golden Globes

Filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus ‘RRR’ bagged the Best Original song trophy for its song ‘Naatu Naatu’ at the 2023 Golden Globes2023 Golden Globes.

The song has been composed by veteran music director MM Keeravaani and penned by Kala Bhairavi and Rahul Sipligunj.
‘Naatu Naatu’ was nominated alongside Taylor Swift’s ‘Carolina’ from ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’, ‘Ciao Papa’ from ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’, Lady Gaga’s ‘Hold My Hand’ from ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and Rihanna’s ‘Lift Me Up’ from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’.

While accepting the award at the 2023 Golden Globes, Keeravaani expressed gratitude for his team and also thanked N. T. Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan for their performance on the song. He said, “Thank you NT Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan danced in full stamina on the song.”

Following the win, the official Twitter handle of ‘RRR’ congratulated Keeravaani by sharing a picture of him holding the trophy. They wrote, “LEGENDARYYYYYY MM KEERAVAANI!!.”

‘RRR’ had received two nominations at the prestigious award ceremony under the categories Best Non-English Language Film and Best Original Song for ‘Naatu Naatu’.

This was Rajamouli’s first project after the 2017 blockbuster ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, was released across the globe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam simultaneously early this year. The film received a huge response in several countries, including the US and Japan. (ANI)

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Ram Charan

Ram Charan Joins Hands With Buchi Babu For His Next Pan India film

Actor Ram Charan who is still basking in the success of his blockbuster movie ‘RRR’, is all set to star in another Pan-Indian film.

Taking to his Instagram, Ram treated fans with exciting news.
Sharing the poster with details of his upcoming movie. He wrote, “Excited about this !! Looking forward to working with @buchibabusana_official & the entire team.”

Ram Charan joined hands with director Buchi Babu Sana, who made his directorial debut with the sensational blockbuster ‘Uppena’.

The director has readied a powerful script with a universal appeal to make it a Pan India entertainer.

The film presented by the leading production house Mythri Movie Makers, Venkata Satish Kilaru is venturing into film production with the movie to be mounted on a huge scale with a high budget under the banners of Vriddhi Cinemas and Sukumar Writings.

The makers of the upcoming movie are still in the process of finalizing the names of the other cast and crew.

Released in March 2022, RRR is a fictional story based on the lives of two Telugu freedom fighters, Alluri Seetharama Raju and Komaram Bheem. Ram Charan and Jr NTR played lead roles, respectively. The film collected over Rs 1200 crore worldwide. Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn and Shriya Saran also starred in the film.

Meanwhile, Ram is wrapping up his highly anticipated film under Shankar Shanmugham’s directorial ‘RC15’. The film, billed as an action drama with current-day politics, features an ensemble cast, with Kiara Advani playing the female protagonist. (ANI)

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RRR's 'Naatu Naatu' Wins Best Original Song At 2023 Golden Globes | Lokmarg

RRR Stars Ram Charan, Jr NTR Enjoyed Japan Visit

Ram Charan gave a sneak peek into the time spent in Japan with his wife Upasana Konidela and ‘RRR’ co-star Jr NTR.

Taking to his Instagram handle, the ‘Zanjeer’ actor dropped a video featuring ‘RRR’ team.
In the video, Ram Charan and Jr NTR were seen having a fun time on the road while walking hand-in-hand with their wives Upasana Konidela and Lakshmi Pranathi. And their wives were seen holding red roses in their hands.

Sharing the video, he wrote, “Together forever!! #rrr,” along with heart emojis.

As soon as the video was posted, the fans flooded the comment section.

One of the users wrote, “It makes me happy to see you having fun and smiling. I wish to see this for the rest of your life.”

Helmed by SS Rajamouli, RRR is a fictional story based on the lives of two Telugu freedom fighters, Alluri Seetharama Raju and Komaram Bheem. Ram Charan and Jr NTR played lead roles, respectively. The film collected over Rs 1,200 crore worldwide.

Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn also starred in the blockbuster.

Recently, ‘RRR fans were disappointed as SS Rajamouli’s directorial was not selected as India’s official entry for Oscars 2023. However, last week, the makers brought smiles to everyone’s faces by applying RRR in 14 categories under the ‘For your consideration’ campaign.

The makers have applied to The Academy For the Oscars in main categories. RRR team has asked for consideration in categories including– Best Picture (DVV Danayya), Best Director (SS Rajamouli), Best Actor (Jr NTR and Ram Charan), Best Supporting Actor (Ajay Devgn), Best Supporting Actress (Alia Bhatt) and more.

“#RRRForOscars. We are honored that RRR’s overwhelming success represented Indian Cinema on the global stage by creating milestones at the worldwide box office and uniting film buffs worldwide by transcending linguistic & cultural barriers. We’re grateful to each & every one who loved our film and cheered us over the past few months. You made this journey possible. We applied to The Academy for Oscars consideration in the general category. We wish our RRR family the best and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for making this possible. Here’s to continuing to win hearts and entertain audiences worldwide,” a note read on the official Instagram page of RRR. (ANI)

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Southern Cinema

Spotlight Shifts to South

More than one Bachhan and three Khans who had a free run on the national big screen and also vowed the non-resident Indian community for as long as one can remember ahead of the breakout of Covid-19, the heroes and heroines of the South aided by competent directors, musicians and technicians with mastery of IT are now calling the shots in the Indian film industry. Shah Rukh Khan is still very popular as an individual and courted by companies to launch their products and services. But it will be difficult to recall his last film where his mojo worked wonders at box office. It is not that he did not make attempts to reinvent himself but he has so far not been able to pull crowds with his last few films.

There was a time, long in the past indeed, when the unpretentious Salman Khan was synonymous with monumental successes in terms of revenues and profits for any film featuring him. But Salman with no claims to making anything but commercial cinema was found smart in often remaking highly successful South Indian films and laugh all the way to the bank. He, therefore, owes a big part of his success to his southern peers.

Take Ghajini, a Hindi remake of the original Tamil thriller directed by AR Murugadoss. In the Hindi remake featuring Aamir Khan in the role of protagonist, producers rightly thought their investment would fetch high returns with Murugadoss remaining the director, who incidentally is also the story writer. Ghajini stands out as an example of all-India triumph of a Tamil film in its Hindi avatar with AR Rahman as music director and other professional big names adding much value.

In its halcyon days when Bollywood with all its big production houses could not think of ever being challenged by what was perceived as makers of regional films, the country was witness to periodic dubbing and remaking of southern films in Bombay that made waves across the country.

A decade apart in 1981 we first saw the remake of Telegu film Maro Charitra (story, screen play and direction by K Balachander) into Ek Dujje Ke Liye (translated in English ‘Made for each other’) and then straight dubbing of Tamil romantic thriller Roja written and directed by Mani Ratnam into Hindi. What is special about these two movies, made originally in Telegu and Tamil for Bollywood, which would claim for itself the exclusive status of making films for the whole country and also abroad?

Even for Satyajit Roy, the winner of Oscar Life Time Achievement Award and maker of two globally acclaimed Hindi films and whose work inspired filmmakers such as Francois Truffaut, Martin Scorsese and Carlos Saura, Bollywood will not be found generous in its appreciation. A Balraj Sahni then or a Shyam Benegal now is not part of core Bollywood. Hindi adaptation of the two southern movies in 1981 and then in 1992, much to the surprise and maybe to some degree of shock to the Bollywood establishment, acquired cult status. In every aspect of filmmaking from storytelling to direction to cinematography to editing to music, the southern establishment had a few lessons for Bollywood. The musical genius SP Balasubrahmanyam, who was worshipped all over the south made a robust entry into Hindi playback singing through Ek Dujje Ke Liye. Unfortunately, the legendary singer passed away in September 2020.

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That the South was abundantly rich in every area of filmmaking – storytelling, direction, cinematography, music direction, editing and acting – was never in doubt. But for very long, it’s largely the people in the south of Vindhyachal who were aware of that genius. Only a few in the rest of the country being keen followers of cinema parallel to commercial movies, the staple of Bollywood, are aware of the works of Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Govindan Aravindan and Shaji N. Karun. They have inspired quite a few to think differently and experiment with the medium and their influence among neo filmmakers is not confined to the south. Creativity apart, the mainstream film industry in the South is backed by excellent infrastructure, in many ways unarguably the best in the country and matching the world benchmark. But where the South has left other filmmaking centres well behind is in adoption of technologies.

One gets a fair idea of that when one sees on big screen films such as Baahubali, Baahubali 2, Pushpa: The Rise and RRR. What the two Baahubali flicks have shown in terms of production scale, racy storytelling, visual effects and larger than life acting and box office collection, is something extraordinary that Indian cinema has never experienced before. In many ways, the unpretentious Baahubali has set new standards for the likes of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis of Bollywood.

Or take Minnal (lightning in English) Murali (MM). Indian film needed its own version of a Superman or a Spiderman or a Batman. We got it for the first time when overcoming all the Covid-19 related production dislocations and releases in theatres, Basil Joseph directed Malayalam language MM (a young tailor turning into a superhero after being struck by lightning) was released to universal acclaim in September last year. Unlike Baahubali and RRR, MM is a small budget film. But it stands out for breaking new grounds.

It has been seen over the years that Bollywood would lean on the South for cinema making material, if not wholesale remaking of successful southern productions. Even then, it required the recent mind-boggling successes of RRR and Baahubali and the rest for filmmakers in Mumbai to give up their condescending attitude of Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telegu cinema. Interestingly without seeking any accommodation from the Mumbai establishment, the South has convincingly emerged as maker of films with their appeal transcending national boundaries to overseas. Bollywood reservations about films made in the South, however, defied logic on many counts.

From Vyjayanthimala to Waheeda Rehman to Hema Malini to Sridevi to Aishwarya Rai who ruled the Hindi screen for decades for their mastery of classical Indian dance and acting are all from the South. That tradition continues with talented, good looking girls from the south making it big in Bollywood. The talent pool in the South is so large that Bollywood has the assurance of having a good number of actresses from there at all times. So we now have Shruti Haassan (Kamal Haasan’s daughter), Vidya Balan, Kajal Aggarwal, Asin Thottumkal, Taapsee Pannu and Genelia DSouza, among others from the South having acquired all-India fame through Bollywood.

Know the meaning of the Tamil word thalaiva – it stands for sir or boss or leader. In the universe of the South, the Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, who will unfailingly spell enormous success at the box office is the thalaiva. Though in his seventies and he wears a wig while acting in films, his appeal among the masses and also southern elite has remained undiminished. His film stunts from the way he will play with a cigarette to his flipping of a stole at the blink of an eye before putting it on his shoulder to his running on speeding trains have encouraged many imitations but not to his kind of perfection. Born to Marathi parents in Karnataka as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, he was given the name Rajinikanth by the late filmmaker and playwright K Balachander and was told to learn and master Tamil. Rajinikanth, before he made a sterling career of filmmaking experienced the raw side of life as he worked as a coolie and then a bus conductor.

On the screen he acts inconceivably larger than life. Two examples: First, the villain shoots at him but Rajinikanth takes it on his palm, which then on deflection kills a bird; second, he uses a knife to cut an approaching bullet into two before he goes to kill three villains. Rajinikanth does all this so naturally that the sheer absurdities don’t bother his millions of admirers. In the Greek pantheon of gods, mortal born heroes and heroines attain godhood through a process which the Greeks call apotheosis. Hindu mythologies are full of instances of gods and goddesses performing miracles all the time and are revered for that. Rajinikanth is no less than a God to his army of fans who will go the extent of bathing his large cardboard cut-outs with milk like the Hindus will do to Shivalingas. He has featured in a number of hit Bollywood movies such as Andha Kanoon, Bewafai, Bhagwaan Dada, Uttar Dakshin, Chaal Baaz and Hum. Besides him, stars from the South such as Girish Karnad, Kamal Hassan and Dhanush have done Hindi movies to public acclaim.

With box office successes eluding Hindi films in the post Covid period, any major south Indian film releases, specially with Hindi adaptation are sending the Bollywood bigwigs down a rabbit hole of blind panic. No wonder, Bollywood filmmakers are now found ensuring that their releases stay at least a few weeks away from big budget releases from south India. All this amounts to a big climb down by Bollywood from an attitude of patronising superiority to good films made in other parts of the country their due. Bollywood experiencing catharsis.