S.S. Rajamouli and I are up within the projection sales space on the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. It’s the Friday evening earlier than Thanksgiving and Rajamouli’s beloved motion epic “RRR” is taking part in to a raucous, sold-out home. We’d been on the lookout for a quiet place to speak, however in case you’ve seen the film, you realize that “quiet” and “RRR” are contradictory in each doable sense.

The film’s nearly over and we are able to hear the viewers roaring their approval throughout a climactic battle sequence. Rajamouli has seen “RRR” with an viewers dozens of occasions, however he by no means tires of listening to them reply to what he’s placed on display.

“There’s another big cheer coming,” he tells me, smiling. “Coming … wait for it …” He holds up his hand, like a symphony conductor. When it arrives, Rajamouli bursts out laughing.

There’s one second to return although that can take Rajamouli abruptly. We make our approach right down to the foyer the place he sees his son, S.S. Karthikeya, a line producer on “RRR.” He provides him a heat embrace. The finish credit are rolling, the ultimate celebration sequence is unfolding, persons are dancing within the aisles — and one exuberant fan is up on the stage — and when the tune finishes and Rajamouli makes his approach towards the entrance, the viewers begins to chant, “SSR, SSR, SSR!”

“I was supposed to introduce you,” says Beyond Fest co-founder Christian Parkes, who would lead a Q&A with Rajamouli, “but you need no introduction. There are filmmakers. There are auteurs. And then there’s SSR.”

Indian blockbuster filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, right here on the Tuck Room in Westwood, is heart stage after the success of his crossover motion epic “RRR.”

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

The subsequent evening, I run into Rajamouli and Karthikeya on the bar on the Governors Awards, the annual honorary Oscars ceremony. “SSR!” I say, laughing. “Is that a thing at screenings now?” Karthikeya doubles over, and Rajamouli shakes his head. “First time,” he solutions, smiling. “First time.” (“RRR” is his twelfth function.)

But maybe not the final as Rajamouli and the awards group for “RRR” (brief for “Rise, Roar, Revolt”) attempt to flip a longshot dream right into a actuality and land the film a finest image Oscar nomination.

Set in Twenties British colonial India, “RRR” spins an imaginative tackle the real-life tales of two Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who, within the movie, develop into finest buddies till their secret loyalties and entanglements get in the way in which. The film options so many wild motion sequences over the course of its three-hour operating time that it’s unimaginable to maintain depend, and it sports activities a spectacular dance-off, set to the tune “Naatu Naatu,” that may simply be the most enjoyable 4½ minutes in movie this 12 months.

“RRR” was launched in March and have become one in all India’s highest-grossing films of all time, taking in $140 million worldwide, together with $14.5 million within the United States. A model dubbed into Hindi arrived on Netflix in May. (The film’s unique language is Telugu.) Enthusiasm for it grew over the summer time, with filmmakers like James Gunn and Scott Derrickson discovering it and sharing their love on social media.

When India bypassed “RRR” as its official choice for the worldwide function movie Oscar in September, its group shifted technique, deciding to go for broke and chase a finest image nomination. There’s additionally a justified push to get the music department to appoint “Naatu Naatu” for unique tune, recognition that will have precedent as songs not within the English language have been acknowledged — and received — previously. (The Hindi tune “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” received the Oscar in 2009.)

What must occur subsequent for “RRR” is for at the least one of many three main movie critics teams — Los Angeles, New York and the National Society of Film Critics — to present the film its finest image prize. Last 12 months, one other Oscar longshot, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s three-hour Japanese drama “Drive My Car,” received the highest prize from all three organizations, catapulting it into Oscar voters’ minds — and, subsequently, hearts, as they later nominated it for finest image.

“Those critics groups wins were huge,” Dylan Marchetti, president of specialty distributor Variance Films, instructed me over dinner a number of weeks in the past. Marchetti dealt with the North American theatrical launch for “Drive My Car” and “RRR,” and he sees similarities in the way in which audiences have responded to the movies. “Both movies are so good that once people see them, they sell themselves. You just need to get them in the door.”

Maybe if Adam McKay adopted by on his concept for a Rose Bowl screening of “RRR” (“How amazing would that be?” he tweeted), that may assist.

Rajamouli has been doing his half, flying in from India for a sold-out late-September exhibiting on the TCL Chinese Theatre after which returning to Los Angeles not too long ago to make the rounds at a collection of screenings for academy and guild voters. Theaters have been packed. No one leaves at intermission. And even when they’re not dancing just like the patrons on the Aero, voters have been cheering.

It’s unimaginable to not love this film.

“The way the film is structured, it makes you feel free to express yourself,” Rajamouli says. “You want to laugh, you can laugh. You want to cry, you can cry. You want to cheer, you can cheer. It doesn’t tell you to hold your feelings to yourself. Express them!”

Rajamouli is a gracious man and a self-described introvert. At the Governors Awards, he moved across the edges of the room — however individuals made positive to seek out him. (Filmmaker J.J. Abrams sought him out, asking about “RRR’s” insane 320-day capturing schedule.) So after I ask Rajamouli how he’d specific his emotions if Oscar consideration got here calling, his quiet, agency reply doesn’t shock me.

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t care about the Oscars,” Rajamouli says. “Because if we get a nomination or an award, it wouldn’t be just for me or just for this film. I have been working with almost the same team for so many years. And they really work hard. They put in more than what they’re paid for. So a nomination or award would be recognition for the years of work of so many people. And that would make me very happy.”