In a surprising turn of events, The New York Film Critics Circle has named ‘RRR’ director S.S. Rajamouli as the best director of 2022! While the recognition is a big deal in itself especially considering how commercial the film was, more importantly, it is an indication of a very hopeful and bright future for the movie and the director at the upcoming Oscars.
It is to be noted that while ‘RRR’ has been winning love and awards around the globe, on its home turf, the movie has been getting a rather ignorant nod when it comes to Oscars. The Film Federation of India (FFI) despite knowing all the appreciation coming in for ‘RRR’ from the West, didn’t use it to their advantage for the Oscars. Instead, in a rather controversial move, nominated the Gujarathi film ‘Chhello Show’ for the Oscars in the category of Best International Feature category.
It was then that the film’s US distributor Variance films mounted a substantial campaign for the film for the award season. With the campaign going on for some time now, one of the most visible results of its success is this big win for Rajamouli at a prominent American critics’ award ceremony. While the Oscars is still a while away, unlike all earlier instances, it seems ‘RRR’ and Rajamouli have a real chance at winning the top honors, that too in the major categories than in the Best International Feature category.
While the maverick director of the ‘Baahubali’ films got his due recognition this time, the Oscars is another ball game altogether. With a different group of voting members, it is to be seen if the film can make India even prouder.
Besides Rajamouli, another big win of the night was for Cate Blanchett, who won the Best Actress Award for her film Tár which also won the Best Film category. While Brendan Fraser’s work in Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Whale’ was a critics’ favorite, the Best actor award this time went to Colin Farrell for his work in two films of 2022 – ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ by Martin McDonagh and ‘After Yang’ from Kogonada.