Composer MM Keeravani, choreographer Prem Rakshith: Meet the team behind RRR song Naatu Naatu that won a Golden Globe

RRR created history by winning a Golden Globe Award on Wednesday morning. The film’s popular song Naatu Naatu was announced as the winner in the Best Original Song category, where it beat some heavyweights performed by the likes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga. While the award was received by composer MM Keeravani on behalf of the team, a lot of other performers’ sweat went into the making of the song.

Like all songs of the film, Naatu Naatu has been composed by MM Keeravani with the original Telugu lyrics penned by Chandrabose. The Tamil lyrics have been written by Madhan Karky, Hindi by Riya Mukherjee, Malayalam by Mankombu Gopalakrishnan, and Kannada by Azad Varadaraj. The track has been sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava for the original Telugu version, with other singers like KD Harisankar, Yazin Nizar, and Vishal Mishra lending their voices for the dubbed versions. The choreography of the song, which has taken the world by storm, has been taken care of by Prem Rakshith.

MM Keeravani, also known as MM Kreem, is a veteran composer who has worked in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada films for over three decades. He has won awards for work in films like Annamayya, Magadheera, Baahubali, having also composed for Bollywood films like Jism, Paheli, Sur, and Zakhm.

The winner for Best Song - Motion Picture is @mmkeeravaani for their song "Naatu Naatu" featured in @RRRMovie! Congratulations! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/ENCUQEtns3

— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 11, 2023

The lyricist Chandrabose has written over 3000 songs in Telugu films and has won several awards.. Rakshith, on the other hand, is also a celebrated name in the Telugu film industry, having worked in films like Baahubali over the course of his career.

Speaking to Cine Josh last year, Prem Rakshit had revealed he worked for 30 days on 97 dance movements for the song and that the team used ultra zoom in order to get the sync right between the actors. Originally, the plan was to shoot the song in the backdrop of 100 dancers, they later decided against it due to the lead stars’ dance moves.

RRR is a Telugu period action drama directed by SS Rajamouli. It stars Ram Charan and Jr NTR as fictionalized versions of two real-life Indian freedom fighters from the 1920s. The song Naatu Naatu comes at a juncture in the film where the two heroes perform in a dance off to beat the colonial British snobs putting them down. The energetic dance number has enjoyed great popularity in India and abroad since the film’s release last year.