Look at this lovely building. You may recognize it as the backdrop of that awesome scene in the Telugu-language Indian film RRR in which Ram Charan and Jr NTR danced to the song "Naatu Naatu." The song won an Oscar for composers M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose in the category Best Original Song last weekend, the first Oscar ever for an Indian film. If you haven't seen the movie, maybe you enjoyed the production number for "Naatu Naatu" at the award ceremonies, where a mockup of the building was used for the background.
If that's where you've seen this building before, you might be surprised to learn that this is Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was built by the emperor of Russia and now serves as the home of the president of Ukraine. Yes, this scene was filmed at Volodymyr Zelenskyy's home. It's just one of the many surprising details about the dance sequence we learn from the film's director, S. S. Rajamouli, in this video from Vanity Fair.
He gives choreographer Prem Rakshit full credit for the amazing scene. Now that you've got the whole story, let's see that dance sequence from RRR in all its glory.
(Top Image credit: Roman Naumov)
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