“The World cinema has definitely played a major role in shaping my outlook and my overall general knowledge. I always watch cinema with a learning perspective and read about the movie, the elements in that, facts in that, historical references, etc, and spend more time reading after watching the film. For instance, Titanic taught me a lot about the economy of the early 1900s, unemployment, class divide, post-Victorian culture, and much more. I’ve always watched movies in various languages and from various countries.

And now, seeing a Telugu movie, RRR, make its mark at the Academy Awards is making me feel great and ecstatic. This is because Indian cinema has always been associated only with Bollywood in the past but it’s a great sign for the regional language films getting recognition in the world scenario. Initially, even when the RRR movie’s Naatu Naatu song won many accolades across the globe after winning the Golden Globe Award, a few of the people recognized the technical and artistic brilliance of the movie calling it a Bollywood movie. But it is not. It is an Indian cinema made by Telugu people inspired by Telugu historical figures. It’s a proud moment for every Telugu film lover today.

In another native language, the Tamil documentary, Elephant Whisperers, won Oscar today in the best documentary short film category. It certainly proves that a simple story can win the hearts of this world and I congratulate them for being an independent film that managed to achieve this.

It’s a historical and proud moment for the makers and I hope this recognition pushes the creative and artistic values of our Indian cinema forward!”