Academy Awards 2023: And the Oscar goes to...Naatu Naatu and The Elephant Whisperers

It’s a double win for India at the 95th Academy Awards currently taking place in Los Angeles. Indian documentary The Elephant Whisperers won Best Documentary Short and RRR song “Naatu Naatu” won Best Original Song.

Composer MM Keeravani and lyricist Chandrabose collected the award for Best Original Song.

“I grew up listening to The Carpenters,” Keeravani said. “And now, here I am, with the Oscars.” He sang a parody of the song “Top of the World” to thank his cousin and RRR director SS Rajamouli.

The Elephant Whisperers was directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain.

“I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world, for the respect of indigenous communities, and empathy towards other living beings we share space with and finally, for coexistence,” Gonsalves said.

India’s third contender in the 2023 Oscars was filmmaker Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes in the Best Documentary Feature Film category. It lost to the film Navalny.

We shouldn’t forget that filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri pretended his film The Kashmir Files had been “shortlisted” for the Academy Awards, as did Kashmir Files actor Anupam Kher. Multiple media reports also popped up parroting the same thing. Of course, it wasn’t shortlisted at all – Kashmir Files was merely part of a list of films “eligible for the 95th Academy Awards”.

But, after all, “facts are not facts” in Agnihotri’s world. Check out his interview with Newslaundry on precisely that.