Starring Ram Charan as Alluri Sitaram Raju and Jr NTR as Komaram Bheem, SS Rajamouli's period action extravaganza RRR has turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year around the world and the film is still running to packed theatres in Japan. The film has been welcomed by the western audience, unlike any other Indian film in the recent past, and is even eyeing to get multiple major nominations at the Oscars.
As soon as the film dropped on the streaming platform Netflix, RRR gained a cult following of its own among the Western audience and some of them have been calling the film 'heartwarmingly gay'. Many viewers, particularly in the West, are sharing their opinions on social media about how RRR is actually a queer story centered around its two leads, and how much they are enjoying the chemistry between the two lead characters played by Ram Charan and Jr NTR.
Rajamouli recently returned to India after attending multiple screenings of his film in America and at the Chicago screening, the filmmaker talked about the importance of "unapologetically” showing male friendship on screen. In an interview with the US-based movie review website, the director elaborated upon his statement saying how filmmakers around the world are now trying to be more 'politically correct' about whatever they portray in their films.
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Speaking to rogerebert.com, the Baahubali director said, "One thing I have noticed, once social media exploded and various people started commenting on various topics in any art form—I’ll talk about film, because that’s my area—filmmakers started taking (those comments) seriously and trying to be politically correct about everything. If you’re trying not to offend this person and not to offend that person, in essence, you’re losing the flavor of your story."
"You can’t be continuously worried about what people are going to say. That would be a very dishonest way of filmmaking. As a storyteller, my allegiance is to the story, not to anyone else. Everyone else comes later. Nowadays, I see two guys afraid to even put their hands over one another’s shoulders. They worry about what people might think. What the bloody hell? You’re friends! Every gesture doesn’t need to have a meaning to it. You’re friends. What’s wrong with showing that? I don’t know", he concluded.
