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Slumdog Millionaire – RAHMAN, POOKUTTY Win Oscars!

Today East met the West. Feb 22, 2009 (Sunday) created a new history for India at Oscars. Needless to say, a new beginning to a glorious film industry of India has unfurled in the annals of Hollywood.

 Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize- -winning novel Q and A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat (India’s Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa) Vikas Swarup. It has won both critical acclaim and commercial success. It has won five Critics’ Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, seven BAFTA Awards and eight Oscars: Best Motion PictureBest Director – Danny BoyleBest Adapted Screenplay – Simon BeaufoyBest Cinematography – Anthony Dod MantleBest Film Editing – Chris DickensBest Original Score – A R RahmanBest Original Song - "Jai Ho" – A R Rahman (music), Gulzar (lyrics) Best Sound Mixing – Resul Pookutty, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke It was the night of A R Rahman and Resul Pookutty as of all Indians. We had a tryst with destiny.  

Apart from Slumdog Millionaire, two films in the race for Oscars have an Indian connection. Nominated in the Documentary (Short) category, both The Final Inch and Smile Pinki deal with people's struggle against physical disorders in India villages.

While The Final Inch is about the fight of a man (Mohammed Gulzar Saifi) against polio in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district, Smile Pinki tells the tale of a girl in the state's Varanasi town whose cleft-lip made her a social outcast.

 Made in Bhojpuri and Hindi, Smile Pinki revolves around poor six-year-old Pinki and is directed by Emmy-nominated producer Megan Mylan.  There have been Indian nominations earlier too. But there have been only two Indians, who have won an Oscar each: 

1. Bhanu Athaiya shared an Oscar with John Mollo for the movie Gandhi in 1982 in costume design category.
2. Satyajit Ray received Academy honorary award for the contribution to world cinema in 1992.

India(ns) waited with bated breath. They brought home the Oscars.