This is going to be a blog article which is broadly divded into two halfs, where the first one is the review of the movie and the second part is an elaborate behind the scenes marketing strategies of the movie.
Click below to follow the Rise, Roar and Revolt of the review.
The Review
RRR is simply my favourite movie in recent times, and it’s probably one of my absolute favourites in a long time to come. I don’t see any movie which comes close and does the same magic on me in the near future. It's not just Telugu Cinema that should be proud of, but it's a movie that brings back the "glory of Indian cinema" post the pandemic. I rate the movie “10 R's” and would also give it extra credit not only for the movie's sheer scale, but also the beyond the cinema attributes and experience that I had with it. The movie is “peak cinema”. It crosses the national boundaries, the rivalry between the fans of the two stars, the epic drama, also bringing in the mythological and historical parallels, the four-year worth of wait, the insane creative spectacle, the sheer imagination and visualisation of the storytelling and everything that complements the movie makes it the “greatest piece of extravagant storytelling” ever made in the modern Indian Cinema in my books. We are living in the “Rajamouli Era” of cinema and we as fans are bound to take what we get, with every penny that we spend on his films, and yet we will be satisfied and take 10X of our money's worth. I watched the movie thrice already, during the opening weekend and it's surely worth watching multiple times more.
The first day experience of watching the movie, on an IMAX screen, was pure eye and ear feast, even though with a dead crowd. Later watching it in a single screen theatre in 3D and at PVR with the fans and commotion, made me think why didn’t I watch the fan show early in the morning. The story is simple, but it has a lot of creative depth, layers, character arcs, emotional weight, and novelty. The elemental comparison of Fire and Water coming together both as friends and foes, the mythological comparison of “Alluri Seetha Rama Raju” to “Lord Rama” and “Komuram Bheem” to “Bheema and Hanuman” was delightful to watch. The “fanfiction” which was imaginatively written on what if both Komuram Bheem and Alluri Seetha Rama Raju, meeting in 1920’s Delhi to fight for different causes but joining hands for the same purpose was “flawlessly written”. Kudos to the father son duo of "Vijayendra Prasad and Rajamouli" in fleshing out the story.
The real life history of Alluri Seetha Rama Raju, “Stealing Guns” from the British police barracks for a greater cause was aptly potrayed by the police narrative of the movie. The History, Mythology and Screenplay nerd in me was in pure awe in connecting the dots and drawing the parallels. The dramatisation that Rajamouli creates by presenting the novel idea of what if guns were available to the freedom fighters and Rama Raju giving out to them for a fair fight worked out brilliantly. The cinematic liberty of depicting lord Rama as Alluri Seetha Rama Raju played by “Ram Charan” through costumes, bow and arrow, hair and makeup was pure brilliance from the costume designer “Rama Rajamouli”. And then topping that by comparing Lord Rama to fight against the british using “Guerilla Warfare” startegy, by both Rama and Rama Raju worked out well in the narrative. The peak imagination of presenting the idea of what if Lord Rama fights “british forces” with his bow and arrows to establish Dharma and giving out the guns for a fair fight was bonkers. As this was the first ever mainstream appearance of Komuram Bheem for cinema, Jr. NTR played it with enough innocence and fierce courage. He was impressive in every farme that he was in, potraying the sad, naive, and agony that he was having. The call backs of various instances from the first half and the payoff in the second half was pulled off due to the brilliant writing.
I can’t talk enough about the movie and it’s not my job to write about the story, themes and character arcs, but it’s for you to witness on the biggest screen that you can find near you. Even though I found many parallels from Rajamouli previous movies, the general trope of reincarnation in Rajamouli’s movies is not presented story wise but through the character development of the two leads. The sheer brute strength of Bheem and the arms along with the tactical mind of Rama Raju was clearly presented, which pays off at the prison escape sequence. I never had a favourite director due to obvious reasons, but RRR and Rajamouli surely made me root for him with his trademark Taking, the Building up of emotions, the constant Raising Stakes and Mass Hysteria moments which were sprinkled . The score composed by his frequent collaborator and his Uncle “MM Keeravani” makes it heart thumping. The music during the opening credits with just the vocals, the use of rock infused Sanskrit chants, and the traditional-esque keeravani drum beats, make the breathtaking sequences in the movie hypnotic to watch. The movie is technically brilliant with the cinematography of “Senthil Kumar” which is accompanied by great periodic sets, costumes, locations and VFX. The pacing and editing of the movie is crisp and I never felt the 3-hour runtime mark.
Overall, I want a sequel as the movie deserves it due to its large scale of the potential that can be explored. I don’t feel I have done enough justice in putting my thoughts, feelings, and emotions about the movie in words and just like that I want to watch the movie multiple times.
Social Media Marketing:
The movie RRR has used Social media platforms in the most effective way as the Movie showed it’s exclusive presence on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube and Facebook. Their first post on Instagram was on 22 March 2019 which indicates that the marketing was started way before the release of the movie in March of 2022. The movie stars Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Junior NTR collaborated with influencers like Awez darbar, Samiksha Sood, Vishal Pandey and many more for the promotion of the song “Naatu Naattu” on Instagram Reels and other platforms. The song created a lot of buzz online where people came up, danced and posted it on their platform. The movie also introduced its filter on Snapchat which reads, 'maRRRch is here'. A filter indicates that 'RRR's' release month has arrived. Twitter was also effectively used to interact with audience and trend hashtags like #RRR, #RRRmovie etc. and also introduced a Hashtag Campaign Emoji. The Constant updates of the cast, where the cast is going, shoot breaks, making videos, covid break videos, etc, was updated through social media platforms. The Cast visited more than 10 states in India and also visited countries like Dubai for its promotions. The social media platforms have more than 600k followers. The movie created a lot of buzz using the momentum of their updates where Meme and Troll pages on Social media followed posting after their updates.
Traditional Marketing:
RRR released in five different languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam & Hindi) worldwide. The team of RRR had various events across different languages. They had a trailer release event, song launches with the whole cast of the movie. They even had a pre- release event in Mumbai which was earlier just supposed to be limited to the Telugu audience but later it expanded to Bollywood. Actors such as Salman Khan were also a part of this event and this event aired on a popular TV channel. A week before the release of the movie the makers announced a multi-city promotional tour of the star cast, the beginning of which was marked with an interesting video posted on the social media sites. They planned on visiting their potential markets from Hyderabad to Bengaluru, Baroda, Delhi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Kolkata and Varanasi to Dubai.
The team of RRR also reached the opening ceremony of the pro kabaddi league of Star Sports channel for the promotions, as pro kabaddi league is watched by a large number of audience so it was a good platform to promote the film.
The star cast of RRR was also seen promoting the movie in the Telugu Bigg Boss as well as the Hindi Bigg Boss in the “weekend ka vaar” episode.
Collaborations:
Apart from the regular collaborations with various influencers in the film, music and social media space, RRR has also set a “new standard for the film industry” by collaborating with PVR Cinemas to temporarily alter the brand name and logo as “PVRRR”. This temporary rebranding is a “one-of-a-kind marketing strategy” that was carried out in more than 850+ PVR screens.
If this method of generating hype wasn't enough, PVR also became the “first theatre chain in India” to help promote a movie through NFTs. Movie goers were offered the opportunity to participate in a contest to win “Six RRR-related NFTs”: two posters signed by the major cast, and movie prop memorabilia such as a vintage bike, coin, and weapons. PVR would be selecting 300 winning entries to assign the PVRRR NFTs.
The RRR team also collaborated with famous personalities such as Karan Johar, Bhuvan Bam and Salman Khan to host a full-fledged event known as “Roar of RRR”. The event’s audience included the film’s cast, crew and other members of the Bollywood and South Indian film industries.
Response:
Since its debut, RRR has been on a record-breaking spree. The film crosses the record Rs 1,100 crore worldwide thereby setting a new record for Indian cinema, surpasing the Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. The film is a wholesome entertainer that delivers spell-binding choreography and adrenaline-pumping cinematography with ultra-wide zoom-out aerial shots to create an epic mythological blockbuster that arouses patriotic sentiments.
After the theatrical release, several international filmmakers, critics and spectators have shared their opinions on social media regarding the jaw-dropping action set piece. Writer and producer Jordan Crucchiola, who is based in Los Angeles, shared a gif from RRR and tweeted, “Watch RISE ROAR REVOLT and be reborn!!!!! RRR GANG LET’S DANCE.” Similarly, YouTube video director Patrick Willems said, “I just saw RRR and I’m sorry but all American movies are lame now. This is the best thing in the world.”
RRR: Now showing at your nearest theatres, book your tickets now and don't miss this visual spectacle!!
Comments