Onions and Potatoes
Explaining the success of RRR in Hollywood, why the film did not work for me and more
Films have always been close to my heart. So I decided to create a dedicated space for conversations around cinema under bitsoveratoms - a sub-substack if you will. If you are into films, do subscribe to Cinephilia!
Decoding The Success of RRR in Hollywood
RRR was 2022's 2nd biggest hit in India and is the 3rd biggest Indian film of all time.
While I am not very surprised at the film's success in the Indian market, I am surprised by the success of RRR in the western market. If the Youtube search results are anything to go by, the western audience is loving it.
But thanks to the awards season that just kicked off with the Golden Globes, we have better social proof. RRR won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and won Critic’s Choice award for both Best Song and Best Foreign Film. Ram Charan and NTR appeared on Variety. SS Rajamouli appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers. This video of the western audience screaming, shouting, and dancing in the theatre is unequivocal proof of their love for RRR. As someone residing in a western country, I know how much they emphasize the “do not be a nuisance to others” rule. So getting them to break their theatre etiquette is an award in itself. Even more proof here, here, and here.
So, what made the film a success in the west? Disruption.
RRR disrupted the status quo of Hollywood. To borrow Dulquer’s words from the 2022 Galatta Plus roundtable:
Everytime there is a trend and everybody jumps on that bandwagon, and then someone is breaking out of it, people find that refreshing.
Blockbuster films from Hollywood in the last few years have been characterized by two stylistic trends: self-awareness and realism.
Hollywood has been inundated with films that didn't take themselves seriously. Be it the Marvel films that winked at the audience whenever things got ridiculous or the breaking of the fourth wall in Deadpool to deliver raunchy jokes, the movies were acutely aware of their over-the-topness. On the other hand, realism dominated Hollywood. We see this in the layered portrayals of villains (Dark Knight), and protagonists (Tár, Matt Ridley’s Batman). They do not make you hate a character who does bad things. Instead, they put them under a microscope and contextualized their actions. They humanize the superheroes and make the villains more relatable. The villain is not purely evil, he has a backstory. The hero is not always right, she makes mistakes too. The films explore complex moral and philosophical themes through grey characters.
RRR is the antithesis of such films. RRR has morally simplistic characters - the bad guys are pure evil and the good guys have nothing but good, selfless intentions. The theme is also morally simplistic - good triumphs over bad. There is no grey; there is only black and white. RRR arrived at a time when the western audience was growing tired of complexity.
Here is the conversation between Thomas Flight and Tom van der Linden in their terrific Cinema of Meaning podcast episode on RRR (edited for brevity):
Tom: The film has these very simple story beats like “this guy is bad and I have to chase him” or “this guy is my friend and I have to save him”. There is no real complexity to the plot but in a good way. These are some of my issues with the recent American blockbusters - instead of committing to big action they make the story more convoluted and that makes you care less in a way...Even Marvel, for example, has committed to having more complicated villains. They want to bring out all the perspectives and examine the different philosophical conflicts. But in RRR, its just “these are the bad guys and they’re doing super bad guy stuff and they are twirling their mustache as they are doing it”.
Thomas: I would rather watch a film that address simpler themes more coherently than something like the Eternals or Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness where they are trying to get into some deeper issues but they are not going deep enough to flesh it out. This move benefits from simplicity…And they do it in such fun, enjoyable way.
Take this quote from the now-famous video on RRR by Patrick:
In American cinema, irony, snark and self-awareness have become defining characteristics of modern blockbusters. The movie star personas of Ryan Reynolds and Dwaynes Johnson are largely built around winking at the audience. RRR is also a movie built around huge, jacked men but no one is tossing one liners comparing the villains to characters from 80s movies or making fun of their names...The thing about RRR is that it is sincere. It is a film that is exactly on the wavelength of Dominic Torreto. It believes in itself and is not afraid of being corny.
Another factor that propelled the film to popularity is the joy of experiencing something novel. Indian films have never crossed over to the west (with the exception of art house films like that of Satyajit Ray) so seeing energetic dance numbers, melodramatic friendship stories, and action scenes played by normal human beings who have exaggerated levels of strength must have been refreshing. Here is Thomas in his video (which I highly recommend):
As someone living in the US, I think a lot of the appeal of RRR comes from getting to experience another culture. Everything from the setting, dancing and music, gave me a movie experience that I have never had before. It was cool to see how another culture tells their story.
Couple that together with great production quality and some grand set pieces, and you have the success story of RRR1. Even the success of films like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way Of Water can be partly attributed to their moral simplicity.
The western audience was tired of peeling the layers of an onion. They wanted a potato and RRR was exactly that.
My Take On RRR & Masala Films
As an Indian, I don’t see any disruptive value in RRR. They are just stock characters from a sappy, 2000s Tamil film saying stock character things albeit with a 500 Cr budget. This kind of "larger than life" genre has been a staple for Indian moviegoers. As someone having grown up in such a climate, the disruption I crave is the layered portrayals of characters. I crave realism. I crave heartfelt stories. I crave depth and moral ambiguity. I crave, yes, onions.
Having said that, there are some mass films that I did enjoy a lot. Vikram and Pushpa are some of the most memorable masala films in recent times. The abilities of the protagonists in these two films were consistent with the world they existed in which was something that RRR overlooked.
In Pushpa, the mass scenes were more around politics, mind games, and sheer grit. It fit the world of drug cartels which required one to play such political mind games. Take this scene where Fahad’s character gets under Pushpa’s skin by touching on the sensitive topic of Pushpa being a bastard. It was hair-raising not because of some grand physical altercation with lions and bullet bikes; in fact, it takes place in a modest setting of an Indian police station. Yet, it was one of my favorite mass moments because of the riveting ego clash between the two.
In Vikram, the film provides logical underpinnings for a grandfather’s ability to wield guns and fight villains by establishing that he was a former commander of the black-ops squad.
Also, the battles in both of these films were not one-man shows. Pushpa had his trusted aide and his inner circle while Vikram had his team that he used to go on missions with.
The mass-ness in these films came not just from the way the scenes were staged and the background score but also from the logical consistency. They didn't simply throw a lot of money into VFX, choreograph unbelievable action sequences, and merely hope that the audience suspends their disbelief, they earned the suspension of disbelief.
I am almost offended that RRR thought I was dumb enough to rejoice in a shallow extravaganza. The mass scenes were over-the-top for no reason other than to evoke awe in the audience. The heroes had superhuman abilities simply because they could. It lacked any grounding even within the world of RRR. The world of RRR is not a mythical world or a mutant world. Most scenes are real and grounded. So what explains the ability of the heroes to take the form of a mythical character and throw bullet bikes? How is it remotely conceivable that they take down the entire British empire just by themselves, without any aid? Consequently, the mass scenes were, to me, unrealistic drivel.
It is at this point that some people put forth the dimwitted argument “You believe a story where a human being designs an iron suit and fights aliens, but you cannot believe the fight sequences in RRR?”. To which I say: “Marvel does enough world-building to allow for the existence of aliens and Iron Man which persuades you into suspending your disbelief. RRR did zilch.”
I want to see Indian cinema depart from mindless mass films that pedestalize heroes for no reason other than for fan service. Sadly, I think the global success of RRR is going to push us to double down on it. Historically, our films have been typecast as “films that had crazy songs and melodrama” and now, we are en route to being typecast as “films that have over-the-top action sequences and energetic dance numbers”.
Though a part of me is happy for Indian cinema getting more global recognition, a part of me cannot but ask with great disappointment (and disbelief) “Out of all the great films India has produced in 2022, you had to pick RRR?”.
Comments on RRR’s PR Exercise
With the Hollywood awards season kicking off, the cast seems to have a clear agenda of capitalizing on the success of RRR in the west. The leads of RRR are praising Hollywood by calling it the “Mecca of film making”, explicitly stating their interest to work with the directors there, and speaking with an obvious American accent.
A lot of people, however, seem to have a problem with Ram Charan and NTR Jr. putting up an accent.
I find such accent-shaming to be small-minded. I was shocked too when I saw them speaking with an American accent (although, I think they pulled it off very well) but it would be foolish of them to not do it. I think anyone in their place should do it and I am glad they are taking it as seriously as they are.
I have to say - this kind of targeted effort is uniquely Indian. Look at the acceptance speeches of the cast and crew of Parasite - they had a translator who helped them connect with the western audience. Even RRR’s crew could have done that. But they chose to learn to speak better English instead. With ambitions of netting a marvel film, I am excited about the opportunities this could bring for them.
As long as their films do not lose touch with their Indian roots, I am all for the all-guns-blazing PR exercise.
Thanks to Joshitha and Subasini for reading drafts of this.
All views expressed by the author are personal.
Any feedback is welcome. Hit me up on LinkedIn or Instagram.
If you liked this blog, please do share!
If you like cinema, do subscribe!
Of course, this isn't the complete picture. But it is a big part of the puzzle.