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While no Indian from India or the U.S. won an Oscar in their own right, one Indian-American was part of the animation team for the film that bagged an Oscar; a British-Indian won for a feature documentary, and a Pakistani who splits her time between Canada and Pakistan, won the coveted golden statue Feb. 28 for her documentary short. But there were numerous Indians from the film industry that shone at the 88th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
British-Indian director Asif Kapadia, won the Oscar in the Best Feature Documentary “Amy” about jazz singing sensation Amy Winehouse who suffered from drug addiction and died from accidental alcohol poisoning in 2011. Thanking sponsors and supporters while accepting the Oscar, Kapadia lashed out at critics including Winehouse’s family. “Really, this film is all about Amy. This is all about showing the world who she really was, not her tabloid persona — the lovely girl, the unbelievable soul, funny, intelligent, witty, someone special, someone who needed looking after,” Kapadia said. Winehouse’s father Mitch Winehouse called it “a negative, spiteful and misleading portrayal.”
Pakistani documentary film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won her second Oscar for Short Documentary, this time for The Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, dealing with honor killing in Pakistan. Chinoy, who splits home between Canada and Pakistan, was called the “Pride of Pakistan,” by that country’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who was in Pakistan when the film won the award praised the documentary for changing the language around honor killing. “This is what happens when determined women get together,” Chinoy said accepting the award, adding, “This week the Pakistani prime minister has said that he will change the law on honour killing after watching this film. That is the power of film.”
She later told CBC News that living in Canada and Pakistan and going back and forth had taught her “that you need to strive to make Pakistan a better place,” and indicated her life was at risk when making the film.
Keralite Sajan Skaria, a character supervisor worked on the animated film, “Inside Out” which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. A graduate in computer science from the National Institute of Technology Kozhikode, Skaria is with the famed Pixar Animation Studio, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Company, and was present at the 88th Academy Awards, Indo Asian News Service reported.
Mindy Kaling, Indian-American comedian and creator of the popular series The Mindy Project, did the voice-over for one of the characters of “Inside Out.”
India’s pride at the awards was Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra who is on an upward trajectory in Hollywood with her lead role as a rookie FBI agent in the series, Quantico. She appeared on the red carpet in a languorous, body hugging, shoulder less white embroidered dress with a trail, created by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad and featured in his Spring-Summer 2016 collection.
Chopra engaged in animated conversations with TV hosts from ABC among others, and went on to be a presenter of one of the awards. “I just don’t want to screw up anyone’s name,” she told one of her interviewers before the awards ceremonies began. She also showed her chops on how to walk the red carpet describing the “S” stance to ABC’s Michael Strahan, telling him to “stick out his butt,” at one point. Comparing the Hollywood awards to Bollywood, she said “It’s similar– like Bollywood. It’s just giganomous. It doesn’t end.” During the awards, the camera rested several times over Chopra as it panned the crowd at the Dolby Theater.
Kaling walked the red carpet looking stunning in a black tight-fitting long gown by Elizabeth Kennedy, with a bright navy blue trail much like a Cinderella ball gown. Funny as usual, Kaling joked about the time it took her to dress for the event. “I’m very low-maintenance. No, actually, I’ve been doing this for 72 hours,” said the off-beat actress who is universally loved by fans for her candid portrayal of Hollywood behind the camera.
British-Indian actor Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 1 and 2, was a presenter; Another British-Indian actor famous for his role in My Beautiful Launderette and Gandhi, who appeared in Indian films like Shatranj ke Khiladi, was among those remembered in the “In Memorium” reel for those who lost their lives in 2015.
The animated short, Sanjay’s Team from Disney’s Sanjay Patel, lost out to The Bear Story, Chile’s first Oscar ever. India’s submission, “Court” was out of the running early on in the Foreign Film category.
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