Reunions.

Illustrations for chapter 30 of @chrisis-averted's Rewind. Reset. Rewrite. Link in replies!

“Your friendship is more valuable than this life.” 

RRR (2022) dir. S. S. Rajamouli

watched rrr for 17th time this weekend. this is not a joke caption I have fr watched it 17 times now. Let’s naatu!!

Ram & Bheem!

BEST DANCING PER YEAR (as voted by my followers) ↳ 2022: RRR

Prem Rakshith - choreographer

Not salsa, not flamenco my brother. Do you know naatu?

ఆర్.ఆర్.ఆర్ (RRR) రౌద్రం రణం రుధిరం, ఎస్ ఎస్ రాజమౌళి దర్శకత్వం వహించారు

RAM CHARAN as ALLURI SITARAMA RAJU RRR (2022) dir. S.S. Rajamouli

Grief and comfort. Magma doodle💕

Netflix India had the balls. (The comments on this twitter thread are horrendous but *wolf whistles*.)

Queerness in Indian Media

↳Film: RRR (2022, Telugu), dir. S.S. RAJAMOULI

RRR is a historical fantasy action drama that follows Bheem (NTR Jr), a Gond warrior who is in search of a Gond girl who was taken away from their home, and Ram (Ram Charan), the British Army officer assigned to catch him. Ram and Bheem meet under false identities and quickly grow closer, but everything is thrown into chaos once the truth is revealed and Ram is forced to choose between his ambitions and his attachment to Bheem.

Long before any white person had ever heard of RRR, queer Indians were cautiously optimistic that there would be something for us in this movie. There was the song Dosti, which felt more romantic than the average song about friendship; Bheem's intense declaration toward Ram in the trailer; Rajamouli explaining that there is no boy-girl romantic song (a staple of masala Indian cinema in any language) because "the romance angle is between these two guys only...bromance...they are the heroes, they are the hero and heroine, and they are the hero and villain"; the lead actors repeatedly questioning interviewers who referred to Jenny and Seetha as Bheem and Ram's love interests; and the writer, V. Vijayendra Prasad, being a huge fan of Salim-Javed movies, particularly Sholay, whose homosocial pairing has been read as queer by queer Indians for decades.

The movie itself gave us more than we could have hoped for from a project made on such a huge scale. Ram and Bheem mimic many of the "hero and heroine" pairings in so many masala movies, doing everything from the "slow-mo staring" for the first meeting, to getting a whole montage song for the progression of their bond, to dressing each other up, to dancing together at a party, to carrying each other, to rescuing each other.

The final rescue scene is perhaps the most telling, as it twists a well-known myth from the Ramayana by putting Ram and Bheem in the position of heroine and hero. It is not Hanuman who tells Rama where to find Sita in Lanka, but instead Seetha who tells Bheem where to find Ram. Bheem, upon finding him, promises to get him out 'even if [he has] to burn this Lanka down to do it'--then promptly carries him on his shoulders the way Hanuman carried Rama, to do away with any suspicions from homophobic audiences.

Those homophobic audiences still made their complaints--a glance at the oldest comments on any clip or behind the scenes video for RRR will make that clear--but they were drowned out by the many fans of the movie. Ultimately, like with any coded movie, the interpretation is up to the individual, but it is undeniable that a number of queer Indians felt that there was a romantic bond between Ram and Bheem. To dismiss that would do a disservice to the many queer people who have, are, and always will work quietly behind the scenes to write our stories, even if they can never say so directly.

komuram bheemudo

morrre rrr

RRR studies from today

ORANGE in Period Drama Costuming Appreciation

1899 (2022- ) costume design by Bina Daigeler Shakespeare in Love (1998) costume design by Sandy Powell The Great (2020- ) costume design by Sharon Long RRR (2022) costume design by Rama Rajamouli Dickinson (2019-2021) costume design by John Dunn Dreamgirls (2006) costume design by Sharen Davis My Country: The New Age (2019) costume design by Kim So-yeon Interview with the Vampire (2022- ) costume design by Carol Cutshall