RRR’s Naatu Naatu song shot outside Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s Palace

Yesterday every Indian woke up to the great news of ‘Naatu Naatu’ – the electrifying dance track from SS Rajamouli’s period drama ‘RRR’ winning the Golden Globe award for ‘Best Original Song’. But readers would definitely be intrigued to learn that the song has a Ukraine connection and it has to do with the president of the war-torn country.

According to a news report, the picturesque location where the award-winning song was shot in August 2021 is outside Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's official residence. The song was shot before Russia invaded Ukraine and the war broke out. The palatial building goes by the name Mariinskyi Palace.

The director of the film believed that they had managed to get permission to shoot the dance sequence in front of Zelenskyy’s official residence because the President of Ukraine himself was a television actor.

Two years ago, before the film had released, its director SS Rajamouli had said in an interview: “We shot the Naatu Naatu song in Ukraine. It is a real location. Actually, it is the Ukrainian President’s palace. There is a parliament right beside the palace. Luckily, they gave us permission to shoot because the Ukrainian president was a television actor. The funny thing is that he acted as the President in a TV series before becoming the President.”

Further, the caption of an Instagram post shared by the official handle of the movie ‘RRR’ read: “Team #RRRMovie landed in Ukraine for the last schedule of the film… Excited…”

“The Ukraine leg was the last shooting schedule of the film.”