The lyricist, who won Academy awards for Naatu Naatu (RRR; 2022) earlier this year, reveals that when he had created music for Telugu period action drama Rangasthalam (2018), he had “high expectation that it would win the National Award as I gave it my all. But it didn’t. And it has finally happened now”.

Ask him between the Oscars and National Award, what holds more significance for him and Chandrabose tells us, “National Award was an achievable dream for me, and that’s why I had worked really hard for it. But, Academy Awards was something beyond my imagination. It was an unattainable wish that I could not even think of. In fact, I didn’t even know that it was possible for a writer from India to get an Oscar.”

While the 53-year-old is extremely happy about winning the National Award, he expresses being surprised and amused that his win wasn’t appreciated as much as he would have expected. “After getting the Oscar, I was flooded with messages, and that’s not even our awards. And now that I have got the National Award, only a handful of people congratulated me. My wife in fact asked me, ‘Why are media people not calling you?’ May be they are tired of me (laughs) or there are several other Telugu people who have won this time, so the attention is divided now,” he shares, looking at the brighter side, and celebrating the fact that recognition on national and international platform has benefitted him in more ways than one.

“This year has been very fruitful year for me. People in the industry now trust my sense of work. They are confident that I will give it my all and will do everything possible to deliver the best result. A nod by people from across the world have given them that assurance in my abilities and I am getting a lot of offers because of that,” concludes Chandrabose, dedicating this award to his village for being his “biggest teacher”.