Delhi boy in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s film

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Delhi boy in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s film ‘Life of Pi’



The boy has no experience of acting

It’s hard to get an actor who looks exactly the character. British director Danny Boyle too had tough time finalizing the hero of his Slumdog Millionaire, and same was the situation for the Oscar-winning director Ang Lee who was searching for his Pi Patel in several young Indian boys for his 3D flick Life Of Pi.

So, if Danny had Dev Patel, a lean boy with innocent looks, to play Jamal Malik, Ang Lee of Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame roped in a teenager named Suraj Sharma from Delhi, reports an agency.

Suraj is just 17 with no experience in acting but he stood out among the 3000 boys who auditioned for Life Of Pi. It was indeed a strenuous hunt for the director but he is satisfied as Suraj is believable as Pi.

“He filled the room with emotion, much of which he conveyed simply through his eyes. His natural ability to believe and stay in the world of the story is a rare treasure,” the director is quoted as saying.

Lee will soon start shooting the film in India and Taiwan. Life Of Pi is based on the Canadian author Yann Martel’s Booker Prize winning-novel. It tells the story of a boy Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel from Pondicherry who survives 227 days after a shipwreck, while stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger.
 
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