Retired Green Beret David Harris has analyzed anOscar-winning movie from India, saying it has over-the-top action, but does include a single accurate, realistic detail. TheOscars have featured international filmsregularly in 1956, in the Best International Feature Film category. However,this hasn’t stopped some movies from getting nominated across other categories as well, such as when South Korea’s 2019 movieParasitewon Best Picture, and whenGodzilla Minus Onewon Best Visual Effects in 2024. This has opened the door for plenty of movies across the awards ceremony.
However,India has not been consistently featured at the Oscarsin the Best International Feature Film category, despite making submissions yearly for the last 20 years. This year, the country has produced everything from 2024’sbox office record-breakerKalki 2898 AD, toLaapataa Ladies, a comedy-drama that won Critics' Choice for Best Film at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. However, some of their most well-remembered movies internationally came out a few years prior, including one that not only got nominated for an Oscar, but won in its category.
Expert Explains The Accuracy Of RRR’s Memorable Grenade Sequence
The Movie’s Realism Is Rather Mixed
Released internationally in 2022,RRRis a historical action film heavily dramatizing the lives of Indian revolutionary figures Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR). Critics hailedRRRas one of thebest action movies of 2022, while the song “Naatu Naatu” became an international sensation.“Naatu Naatu” later won an Oscar for Best Original Song, giving India its first big presence at the awards ceremony in a long time. This is despite some exaggerated action scenes, some of which can be put under further analysis.
“Naatu Naatu”: I Didn’t Realize The RRR Choreographer Came Up With THAT Many Versions Of The Dance
RRR is one of the most exciting 2020s films, but the most talked about scene is the Oscar-winning “Naatu Naatu” by choreographer Prem Rakshith.
Speaking withInsideron theirHow Real Is It?series, Harris revealed thatRRR’s scene of Bheem shooting arrows with grenades on them at a group of soldiers has some accuracy to it. At 9:57,the former Green Beret explained how it is physically possible to attach a grenade to an arrow and let it fly. However, he says fiery explosions and vehicles getting overturned wouldn’t happen in real life. He ultimately gave the scene a 3 out of 10 for real-world accuracy. Check out what Harris had to say and the video of his reaction below:
Would that work in real life? Actually, yes! As long as that grenade is on that arrow and it holds onto it the whole time in flight, you’re good. The issue would be how good you’re shooting with the arrows, how fast the time in flight of how far you need to shoot that arrow. The effects you would have with an arrow, it’s probably distance. The biggest thing would be distance, how far I could throw it. Because the arrow in my bow is gonna go further faster than my arm is gonna get it.
The grenade is not designed to set fires everywhere and burning. Now, if there’s secondary explosions, maybe. But not like that, no. You threw the grenade, the grenade blew up, and it set this gas tank off, and then this gas tank blew up! [Laughs] I would need all these things to happen! Which could be extremely lucky. But I doubt it.
A grenade cannot flip a motorcycle over like that. They’re not designed for that, they’re fragmentation, so it probably won’t stop the vehicle. At best, you’ll injure the people on the vehicle, and if it doesn’t kill them, they’ll just drive the vehicle off. So it’s not designed for stopping the vehicles.
I would rate this a 3 [out of 10]. Because all the explosions and all that stuff, it wouldn’t happen.
Our Take On RRR’s (Mostly) Unrealistic Grenade Action Scene
It Doesn’t Detract From The Wildly High-Octane Movie
Although the Indian movie’s action scenes aren’t incredibly realistic, the arrow shooting grenades being possible is a rather surprising revelation. The rest of the movie aligns with its over-the-top presentation, so to discover something that seems unrealistic actually isn’t gives the film’s action sequences more basis in reality. Even if much of the scene is hyperbolized,RRRis still an entertaining feature worthy of its Oscar and overall praise.
RRR
Cast
Directed by S.S. Tajamouli, the Telugu epic RRR tells the fictional story of two real-life figures, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao), who become friends while fighting the governing forces as Indian revolutionaries during the British Raj.
