Will RRR's historic winning streak lead to Oscar glory?

A s film lovers around the world catch up to the irresistible appeal of  RRR , the South Indian historical action-drama that's breaking ...

As film lovers around the world catch up to the irresistible appeal of RRR, the South Indian historical action-drama that's breaking new ground this awards season, for many fans in India, the global appreciation has been a long time coming.

The Telugu-language film has been breaking records since it was released in March last year. Directed by S S Rajamouli, and starring Telugu superstars N T Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan in the lead, the film is a fictional take on two real-life revolutionaries in pre-independence India.

RRR is also one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, with a reported budget of 5.5 billion rupees ($67.6 million), although it's already collected more than 12 billion rupees ($147 million) at the global box office.

Dubbed and also released in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and other languages, it is now the second-highest-grossing Indian film of 2022 and currently the fourth-highest-grossing Indian film in history — although that is bound to change with its ever-growing international awards haul and Oscar buzz.

Rao Jr and Charan play real-life Indian freedom fighters Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju — while the story itself is director Rajamouli and co-writer V Vijayendra Prasad's imagining of what it would have been like had the two revolutionaries been friends.

 Jr's Bheem is a tribal leader who sets off to rescue a young girl abducted by an evil British officer. Warned of Bheem's plan, the officer's wife enlists Charan's Raju, a member of the Indian Imperial Police, to help diminish the threat.