MUMBAI: And the Oscar goes to AR Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire! Indian music maestro AR Rahman has won two Oscar awards for Best Original Score and Best Soundtrack for the Danny Boyle directed movie.
Slumdog Millionaire swept a whooping 8 Oscars awards out of the 10 nominations that it had received including Best Picture.
Rahman is the first Indian music director to have won the honour. Among other Indians, costume designer Bhanu Athaiya won the Oscar for Gandhi in 1982 and legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray received the Academy Honorary Award in 1992.
“Mere Paas Maa Hai!” said Rahman in his Oscar award acceptance speech!!! This famous line is from the movie Deewar starring Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor! Rahman went on to add, “I was really nervous to come up here and I remember the last time I was nervous was before I was getting married. Many a times I had opportunities to choose between love and hate and I chose love, and that’s why I’m here today.”
The Slumdog Awards: Danny Boyle won the Best Director award, Rahman won one for Best Music (Song) for Jai Ho, the lyrics of which are penned by Gulzar and the second for Best Music (Score), Chris Dickens won for Best Editing, Resul Pookutty, Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for Best Sound Mixing, Anthony Dod Mantle for Best Cinematography and Simon Beaufoy for Best Writing for Adapted Screenplay.
In his acceptance speech, Pookutty said, “This is unbelievable. We can’t believe this. Ladies and gentlemen… sorry… I share the stage with two magicians, you know, who created the very ordinary sounds of Bombay, the cacophony of Bombay, into a soul-stirring, artful resonance called Slumdog Millionaire. I come from a country and a civilization that given the universal word. That word is preceded by silence, followed by more silence. That word is "Om." So I dedicate this award to my country. Thank you, Academy, this is not just a sound award, this is history being handed over to me. My sincere and deepest gratitude to my teachers, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie, Pravesh… and everybody who has contributed to this film, Glenn Freemantle and all the sound mixers. I dedicate this to you guys. Thank you, Academy. Thank you very much.”
The other winners were:
Performance by an Actor In a Leading Role: Sean Penn for Milk
Performance by an Actress In a Leading Role: Kate Winslet for The Reader
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Departures
Achievement in Sound Editing: Richard King for The Dark Knight
Achievement in Visual Effects: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Documentary Short Subject: Megan Mylan for Smile Pinki
Best Documentary Feature: James Marsh and Simon Chinn for Man On Wire
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Best Live Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Achievement in Makeup: Greg Cannom for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Achievement in Costume Design: Michael O’Connor for The Duchess
Achievement in Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt (Art Direction); Victor J. Zolfo (Set Decoration) for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Animated Short Film: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Wall.E
Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Penelope Cruz for Vicky Chistina Barcelona
(Picture Courtesy: Oscar.com)
