RRR heads to São Paulo fest as Rajamouli receives top honour

S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR is heading to one of Latin America’s most respected cinema stages. The 50th São Paulo International Film Festival will screen the film, and the festival is presenting Rajamouli with the Leon Cakoff Award, described by the film’s team as one of the event’s highest tributes.

A festival moment, not just a screening

The special screening is set for Monday, 19th October at 5:30 PM at Solar – Sala Petrobras in São Paulo. Rajamouli will be present, the team said, and the announcement carried a warm note for Brazilian fans: ‘Obrigado, Brasil, for all the love!’

For Indian film lovers, the moment matters because it is not a regular theatrical slot. The festival is treating Rajamouli as a world-cinema figure, putting RRR in front of an audience that engages with cinema as art and culture. That is a different kind of validation from box-office numbers alone.

A global run that keeps compounding

RRR has been travelling since its 2022 release. Starring Ram Charan and Jr NTR as revolutionaries, with Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt in key roles, the film has built a long line of international wins.

• A historic Academy Award for Best Original Song for Naatu Naatu.
• A Golden Globe in the same category.
• Multiple Critics Choice Awards.
• Special screenings and presentations in Japan and North America.

The awards haul itself is significant, but the bigger story is momentum. RRR did not fade after its Oscar season; it keeps finding new festival platforms and new audiences, which is rare for a big-canvas action spectacle.

What the Rajamouli universe is building next

The São Paulo honour also arrives as the wider Rajamouli world is expanding. Varanasi, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Prithviraj Sukumaran, is scheduled for theatres on April 7, 2027. According to the makers, Sukumaran’s character Kumbha is the film’s most complex mind.

There is also Baahubali: The Eternal War, a two-part animated 3D feature directed by Ishan Shukla. The CG spin-off is set inside the Baahubali universe and follows Prince Baahubali through an epic battle spanning 14 realms, mixing Indian mythology with large-scale animation.

For Total Filmi readers, the practical takeaway is simple: Rajamouli is no longer just a pan-India hitmaker; he is being programmed and honoured at international festivals as a storyteller whose scale translates across languages. That shift raises the ceiling for every Indian filmmaker with global ambitions.

Source: Filmfare