Raghavendra Rao, Tammareddy Bharadwaj engage in war of words over Oscar campaign expenditure by RRR movie team
The Telugu film director K Raghvendra Rao reacted to the comments by director Tammareddy Bharadwaj that the RRR movie team expenditure of nearly Rs 80 crore in promoting movie in Oscars campaign
Hyderabad: An off-the-cuff remark by noted Telugu film director and producer Tammareddy Bharadwaj about expenditure involved in promoting the Telugu blockbuster RRR led to a sort of war of words in Telugu film industry with another noted director K Raghavendar Rao crossing swords with him.
In what was believed to be an impromptu statement before the video cameras in a programme two days ago, Tammareddy Bharadwaj is heard commenting that there was an expenditure of nearly Rs 80 crore involved in promoting the blockbuster movie RRR in the Oscars campaign.
The movie RRR directed by SS Rajamouli has created history at the box office in India and one of its song Naatu Naatu has been nominated for Oscars 2023 under Best Song category. The song will also be performed live on stage by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava.
While the excitement is running high among the film aficionados and in Tollywood, Bhardwarj’s comment about the RRR team spending Rs 80 crore for its promotion and that he could have produced eight movies with that money, had indeed stirred a hornet’s nest.
While twitterati were critical of Bharadwaj’s acerbic comments, director K Raghavendra Rao jumped into the fray asking Bharadwaj whether he had any reliable and verified information about the Rs 80 crore spent for promoting RRR. He had also advised Bharadwaj to feel proud that a Telugu film was getting international recognition. He wondered as to why noted Hollywood directors like James Cameroon and Steven Spielberg had appreciated the movie RRR.
“Is it your intention that Cameroon and Spielberg had praised RRR after taking money?”, he queried. The hot reply by Raghavendra Rao led to another round of intense discussion among the Telugu film loves on the social media platform.
— Raghavendra Rao K (@Ragavendraraoba) March 9, 2023
It remains to be seen whether the spat between Raghavendra Rao and Tammareddy Bharadwaj would further intensify or it would remain as a storm in a tea cup.
