It’s the day before the Golden Globes, and I’m chatting with M.M. Keeravani via Zoom. The Indian composer beams with excitement as I mention his nomination for Best Original Song. He plans to take it easy, indulge in his favorite breakfast croissants, and enjoy the night. A night that ended with Mr. Keeravani winning his first major prize of the season for “Naatu Naatu,” a booming Telugu-language track.
RRR (Rise Roar Revolt), the three-hour fictitious epic for which Keeravani served as composer for the songs and score, has become a worldwide sensation, grossing upwards of 150 million dollars at the global box office. Available on Netflix in several different languages and dialects, RRR is now the most-watched non-English language film on the streaming giant. RRR has become a ground-breaking success for Telugu cinema, or “Tollywood,” a term that refers to films produced in the Telugu- language, spoken primarily in southern India. The film stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, Tollywood’s biggest names, as Bheem and Raju, two revolutionaries fighting against oppressive British rule in 1920s India. At the core of RRR is a story of friendship between these two men as they embark on an action-packed saga to seek revenge for their families and free their people.
When Bheem and Raju are invited to a garden party, a less-than-warm welcome from the British aristocrats gives way to a dance battle, with “Naatu Naatu” serving as the soundtrack for an exhilarating, heart-pounding sequence with blazing-fast footwork and cheer-worthy choreography. Filmed in front of the presidential palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, the dance number is bombastic, colorful, and expertly shot, with “Naatu Naatu,” driving the plot forward. “Naatu Naatu,” which translates to “dance, dance,” features Indian drums and string instruments, electrifying one of the most memorable and intoxicating scenes in recent cinema. It’s impossible not to get swept up in action and to stop humming along to “Naatu Naatu,” an infectious melody Keeravani says he came up with in 15 minutes.
Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Keeravani details the work that went into creating the song and reflects on its roaring success.
Awards Daily: I read that the director of RRR, S.S. Rajamouli, is your cousin. Is that right?
M.M. Keeravani: Yeah, that’s right.
AD: You’ve worked on all of his films. What’s that experience like?
MMK: That’s right. It’s a bit easier for me to work with him, having him as my cousin and knowing him since his childhood. And that’s also the toughest part.
AD: How so?
MMK: He can say anything to me if he wants to. I mean, if he doesn’t like something, he can yell at me like nothing because of the intimacy he has with me as a brother. So that’s the disadvantage. And the advantage is you have a rapport, and you have a perfect understanding.
AD: What did you think when you first heard about RRR?
MMK: RRR was an exciting and much-awaited venture ever since it was announced initially. RRR stood for Rajamouli, Ram Charan, and Rama Rao—that that was the intention. Later on, it became Rise, Roar, Revolt. So, right from the first step, it was like taking a big leap into an adventurous thing because it was multi-star. Rajamouli had never done a multi-star before. It was his first venture with having big stars, two of them, in a single project. But that was the first reaction of mine and of everybody else.
AD: In terms of “Naatu Naatu,” did you know from the beginning what role it would play in the film and how grand that sequence would be?
MMK: Yeah, of course. I know every song situation and everything beforehand and long before the composing sessions start. So I know pretty well what’s happening in every scene and every song. I have the full information and full access to every detail of the story as a chief technician.
“Naatu Naatu” is meant to be an entertainer, as well as a song that helps the protagonists defend themselves from the intimidation they’re facing from the British. But then the song took a bigger dimension. It went to a bigger dimension because of the choreography, because of the scene itself, and how they created the scene. I don’t call it a song – Naatu Naatu is a scene by itself. It’s not a song for song’s sake. It’s very much integrated into the story.
AD: Were you there when they shot the “Naatu Naatu” sequence in Ukraine?
MMK: No, no. I was busy elsewhere, so I didn’t have the privilege of watching them shoot the song. I could not go. Everybody else went, but I could not go.
AD: Can you tell me about the instrumentation of it? How did you come up with the sound of that beat? It’s so thrilling.
MMK: Yeah, there is this instrument called daf. That’s a drum instrument used extensively in all folk songs of India. So we use lot of those dafs – about 20 to 30 dafs were used. And those dafs are providing the main beat of the main percussion, the main beat of this main group. ‘Dum—da-dadada—dum—da-dadada’…that’s how it goes. There’s a constant beat happening underneath, providing energy and life—providing lots of animation to the song. That is the key instrument. Apart from that, we have mandolins and we have keyboards, but all those take a back seat. But this beat dominates the instrumentation part.
AD: What else can you tell me about putting the song together?
MMK: While recording, we had to slice a few lines from the main vocalists and part of the rhythm from the mandolins’ theme. So, because of the slicing process, the folk song gained a modern color. The song has got lots of processing effects in it, especially towards the end, where the dancers had to dance, showcasing their full level of stamina.
We had eight dafs replicating them two to three times. That makes it 24. And we had four mandolins and we had the oud instrument. As I said, “Naatu Naatu” is a completely rhythm-oriented song. Not many American instruments are used. It completely uses the rhythms.
The songwriter, Chandrabose, he’s very popular. He’s very, very much known for writing these kind of peppy numbers. So he wrote the lyrics first. And then I composed the tune, and my programmers, Jeevan Babu and Siddharth took the programming part.. So this collective effort was poured into the song. And, of course, we had this choreographer, Prem Rakshith, who came up with amazing steps for the song.
AD: How long did “Naatu Naatu” and the compositions for RRR take you? How long did you have to work on it?
MMK: The basic melody will sometimes be generated in as quickly as five minutes. Sometimes, it takes two or three days or two or three weeks. The maximum is three weeks, and the minimum is five minutes. But, once the basic melody is done, we take a lot of time to record the live instruments and program them on the digital audio machine. I use Logic Pro. So these things take time. But the basic melody is like child’s play, at least for me. I take no time to compose a melody.
AD: What about “Naatu Naatu?”
MMK: “Naatu Naatu” happened in, I’d say, 15 minutes. But to record the song— to call the singers, get the vocals done, program the music, do the processing, and to take the live instruments— it took at least 45 days.
AD: It’s interesting that you’ve mentioned that “Naatu Naatu” is not really a song, it’s more like a scene in and of itself. Is that different from how you normally approach the process?
MMK: Yeah, normally we have songs only as romantic numbers, where the hero and the heroine keep singing the song. Most of them are love songs – duets with choreography. So, this song is different. This is a duet sung by two males and two friends. But the intention of having a song here is completely different. It is to defend themselves from the ill-treatment and intimidation happening there in the party. We call it a situation song; that’s what we name them. So is it just a normal duet, for the duet’s sake, or is it a situation song? This is clearly a situation song. There is some situation happening there, like in a musical.
AD: Were you surprised by the reaction to “Naatu Naatu?” People really, really love the song.
MMK: Yeah, of course, of course. I’m completely overwhelmed by the kind of response it’s getting these days. I never expected this kind of response. This is quite new and quite overwhelming. Quite exciting. This response is too good to believe.
AD: What was your reaction to the first time you saw that sequence? Were you as blown away by it as everyone else was?
MMK: Yeah. I watched the song, and I thought, ‘Oh, is this a song I did? It looks amazing.’ I knew then and there RRR was going to go beyond limits because of not just the song but because of the way they presented the song. It was then that I knew that it was going to create some news. I just didn’t know it when I recorded the song.
AD: Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you would like to mention?
MMK: I’m very happy that this song has come this far and been nominated for the Golden Globe and shortlisted for the Oscars. I’m very happy to have all our efforts come this far. And I’m especially happy for everyone on the RRR team who was working on this song. I’m happy for everybody; I’m hoping for the best.
RRR is streaming on Netflix.
