RRR success celebrated with grand event

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A 1000 crore-grossing film! Isn’t that the stuff Indian filmmakers’ dreams are made of?

The success party of RRR, which has grossed Rs. 1000 crore (100 billion) worldwide, was held April 6 at the Hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai. Pen Studios’ Jayantilal Gada hosted the grandest event in recent times with a bevy of film, TV and web personalities in attendance.

Present from the team were director S.S. Rajamouli, producer D.V.V. Danayya, NTR Jr. and Ram Charan. Also gracing the event were luminaries like Jeetendra (on the eve of his 80^th birthday, which he acknowledged with a smile when I wished him), his son Tusshar (who said, “Dad hates being reminded of his age! For him, age is just a number and he wants to keep working!” before Jeetendra entered!), Aamir Khan, Sharad Kelkar, Aditi Pohankar, Darshan Kumaar, Satish Kaushik, Padmini Kolhapure, Huma Qureshi, Rakhi Sawant, Johny Lever, Arjan Bajwa, filmmakers Karan Johar, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Abbas-Mustan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Indra Kumar, writer Javed Akhtar, Bhushan Kumar, Ganesh Jain of Venus, Pravin Shah of Time Magnetics and more.

The exemplary off-screen camaraderie between Ram Charan and NTR Jr. was clearly visible and so was their respect for their director. Both said that this film was their finest and most unforgettable experience ever. Asked to describe what superstardom meant to them, Ram Charan stated that it was about being busy, catching up with family for an hour (!), spending another hour in the gym and taking minimum rest. NTR Jr. echoed, “I copy-paste that! But I must remind you that the word ‘superstardom’ is a tagline, nothing more.”

NTR Jr. said that he and his hero were lucky to have played freedom fighters and to pass this message of patriotism to the generations of today and the future.

While Dr. Jayantilal Gada, co-producer of RRR and the host for the day, as well as others raved about Rajamouli, the affable and humble filmmaker stated that he conceived all his films by thinking as a child does, and that there is a child in everyone that therefore connects with his films. The filmmaker has yet to taste a flop between Student No. 1 in 2001 and this film!

Regarding the numbers (His Bahubali 2—The Conclusion had grossed Rs. 1800 crore worldwide in 2017!), he stated that for a variety of reasons, such things were not in a filmmaker’s hands. Various aspects including time of release could influence the collections, but what was more important was the appreciation that he and his team got, the love of the audience being really the key.

Rajamouli stated that one of the most gratifying aspects of this film was the success and love it got from the Western world, especially from audiences in the US.

Asked if he would make a sequel to the film, he quipped that if he did, what he would enjoy the most was spending time with his two stars and the entire team again (the film’s agreement between Danayya and Dr. Gad was signed, incidentally, way back on March 31, 2018).

In a raving speech laden with superlatives, Karan Johar, who distributed the Bahubali franchise, said that Rajamouli was always upping the bar and confessed that when people had complimentd him for Bahubali, ignorant of the fact that he had not made it, Karan did not disillusion them and basked in the compliments! “Rajamouli is now officially the biggest filmmaker from India, and when I saw this figure of Rs. 1000 crore, I was stunned!” he said.