Oscars : Disappointment for India, joy for Ang Lee!

‘Life of Pi’, a movie adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel, which was shot extensively in and around Pondicherry with the help of a healthy Indian contingent as part of the crew has bagged 4 awards at the 85^thAcademy Awards that took place earlier today.

Not surprisingly the film won for Best Visual Effects and also for Best Cinematography which was accepted by Claudio Miranda. But the most unexpected surprise was Ang Lee winning Best Director, and deservingly too, since Steven Spielberg was the front runner for that award for his film ‘Lincoln’.

While the film was nominated for a total of 11 categories, the most anticipated one of them for the Indian audiences was that of Best Original Song which would have fetched Bombay Jayashri an Oscar for lending her voice, but sadly that wasn’t to be as the award went to the title track of the James Bond film ‘Skyfall’. But the film’s music director Mychael Danna took home the award for Best Original Score.

In the end the director, who won the award for second time after Brokeback Mountain, was clearly overwhelmed with the announcement and in his acceptance speech he made it a point to thank his Indian crew and even managed to sneak in a ‘Namaste’.