Acclaimed filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli’s high-energy “RRR” was one of last year’s global smash hits, taking in $160 million at the global box-office from a $69 million budget along with being a smash hit on Netflix.
Boasting a major budget, the lavish Telugu-language feature offers a fictional spin on the friendship between two Indian revolutionaries and their fight against the British Raj. As a film it is maximalist to the extreme from its 182 minute runtime and its outrageously wild action sequences that make Michael Bay almost look demure in comparison.
Since the film’s release, Rajamouli has been doing press rounds and discussing his love of American and Indian action films along with being highly praised by some of the biggest blockbuster filmmakers on the planet including Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.
Recently chatting with The New Yorker, he was asked about the quality of action filmmaking in Marvel and other recent superhero movies recently. He says:
“They make extraordinary action set pieces. I mean, the action sequences are the reason I watch Marvel movies. I get engrossed in their action set pieces – I just love them. Their quality, their ingenuity, and their visual compositions – everything is mind-bogglingly good.
But one complaint I have: the editing in these sequences is too fast. That kind of pace doesn’t allow me to fully immerse myself in each shot and enjoy them completely.
Sometimes you lose a semblance of who is fighting whom, who is hitting whom, and what happened. The action scenes are otherwise great, except for that one small complaint.”
He also spoke about Cameron, revealing: “I think I love . . . every film of his” before revealing the one film of his he hasn’t seen is “The Abyss” to which the interviewer rightfully tells him: “You will love ‘The Abyss'”.
The full interview is now up at NewYorker.com. “RRR” is available on Netflix around much of the world.
