Distributor ‘RRR’ slams Twitter for Telugu ad ban

February 17, 2023

Variance Films took to Twitter to complain that it could not release clips from “Naatu Naatu” because the song was not performed in an approved language.

Another day, another problem for Twitter under the patronage of Elon Musk.

The social media site was slammed by Variance Films, the distributor of SS Rajamouli’s Tollywood blockbuster ‘RRR’. The film is currently in the final stages of its ‘Naatu Naatu’ Oscar campaign for its music track, which won the Best Original Song category. IndieWire’s Marcus Jones currently has the song, written by Kaala Bhairava, MM Keeravani and Rahul Sipligunj, who is listed as an Oscar front-runner.

With voting closing in a matter of weeks and many movie fans trying to catch up on movies they missed last year, Variance is trying to eliminate it by promoting “RRR” as much as possible. However, the company says it cannot run clips of ‘Naatu Naatu’ in Twitter ads because the scene is set in Telugu, which is not among Twitter’s approved languages.

“We’d like to promote our Oscar-nominated film RRR,” Variance’s official Twitter account wrote. it beeps Elon Musk and Twitter support tagging. “But Telugu, which is spoken by more than 81 million people, is not an ‘approved language’ for advertising, so we were completely banned from advertising for trying to promote a clip with subtitles? Is that right?”

A Variance Films representative declined to comment further.

The Twitter dustup isn’t the first language problem that “RRR” has run into. While the film was shot in Rajamouli’s native Telugu, the version released worldwide was dubbed in Hindi. In an interview with IndieWire’s Eric Kohn, the director explained that he understood that the film needed to be presented in a more widely spoken language.

“No, because I directed it,” Rajamouli replied when asked if he was bothered by the decision to dub the film. “I checked every single line to make sure the essence of the language came through. I watched it so many times. We spent so much time getting it right. Of course, it would have been nice if it had appeared in my own language, but that does not detract from the dubbing.”

“RRR” is now streaming on Netflix.

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