Jessica Chastain heaps praise on SS Rajamouli’s epic ‘RRR’

Jessica Chastain
| Photo Credit: Evan Agostini

Oscar winner Jessica Chastain is the latest Hollywood A-lister to come out in praise of SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus RRR.

The actor, known for her performances in Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, A Most Violent Year, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, shared her excitement about watching the film in a Twitter post.

“Watching this film was such a party,” Chastain wrote, sharing a post on Friday by Variance Films, the official distributor of RRR in the US.

The movie’s official Twitter handle replied to her tweet and wrote, “Jessica, you enjoying RRR made us happy.”

Starring Ram Charan and Jr NTR in the lead, RRR follows a pre-Independence fictional story woven around two real-life Indian revolutionaries — Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem — in the 1920s. It also stars Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn in key roles.

Released theatrically last March, RRR raised reported earnings of over Rs 1,200 crore at the global box office. The Hindi version of the film premiered on Netflix on May 20, 2022, and soon became the most popular movie from India on the streamer globally.

In the past, the movie received praise from the who’s who of Hollywood such as Edgar Wright ( Baby Driver), Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson and writer C Robert Cargill, Joe Dante of Gremlins fame, Guardians of the Galaxy films director James Gunn, Dune screenwriter Jon Spaihts, filmmaker Christopher Miller and The Gray Man directors Anthony and Joe Russo.

The makers are currently gearing up for the Hollywood award season where its distributor Variance Films has mounted a substantial campaign to have the film recognised in the general categories at various ceremonies.

Last year, RRR bagged two Golden Globe nominations — Best Picture – Non-English and Best Song for ‘Naatu Naatu’. It was followed by five nods for Critics Choice Awards — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Song for “Naatu Naatu”, and Best Visual Effects.

On Friday, the movie made it to the BAFTA longlist for Film not in English Language category. It shares space with All Quiet on the Western Front, Argentina, 1985, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Close, Corsage, Decision To Leave, EO, Holy Spider, and The Quiet Girl. The 10 films will compete to secure a place in the final five for the BAFTA honour.