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NEW
DELHI: Academy Award Winning Director Ang Lee is coming to India
as part of a grand promotional tour for 20th Century Foxs
Oscar buzz generating festive release Life Of Pi directed
by him.
Fox Star Studios have earlier hosted eminent personalities such
as Danny Boyle, Hugh Jackman and Titanic's Jon Landau in India.
India
will be the first country to be visited by Lee the film has
an Indian angle since it stars Suraj Sharma, Tabu and Irrfan Khan.
Lee
will also be presenting exclusive and unseen 20 minutes of the
film in stunning 3D to media and prominent Bollywood personalities
to showcase the extraordinary experience of watching the celebrated
novel come to life onscreen.
The man behind some of the most prestigious and acclaimed films
such as Sense and Sensibility (1995), Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon (2000, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language
Film), Hulk (2003), and Brokeback Mountain (for which he won an
Academy Award for Best Director), Ang Lee will visit Mumbai and
Chennai along with David Lee (Co-Producer of Life Of Pi), main
lead and debutante Suraj Sharma, Tabu and Irrfan Khan.
Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh said, Ang is scheduled
to arrive in India on 28 October 2012 for a two-city Mumbai-Chennai
visit where he will also showcase exclusive visuals from the film
for a select audience. This visit will also kick start the extravagant
scale of activities planned, building on the excitement and anticipation
that has been growing for 'Life of Pi' since its trailer launch.
Not only is it a stunning showcase of the immense acting talent
and breathtaking locales of our country, it is also one of those
rare works of cinema that transcends boundaries with its universal
appeal.
Life of Pi 3D release is scheduled on 23 November
in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
The film showcases stunning scenes with Sharma, and veterans Tabu
and Khan in the film along with breathtakingly vibrant colours
of Pondicherry and Munnar where the film was extensively shot.
From the Oscar winning director, Life of Pi 3D is the visually
stunning tale of a boy who is adrift at sea in a lifeboat with
a Bengal tiger after his family is drowned in a shipwreck. The
Indian appeal of Ang Lees magnum opus is visible with every
scene of the film right from the star cast to the locales and
magical elements that combine to make this a special festive treat
for fans!
The theatrical promo also featured the Indian stars, and the trailer
immediately went viral with laudatory reactions pouring in on
various social networking sites.
The film centers on Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) who is raised in
Pondicherry India with his family who run a zoo. They decide to
immigrate to Canada, taking their animals along with them and
set off on a huge freighter ship, steaming from India across the
Pacific. But a terrible storm destroys the ship. The family and
most of the animals perish. Pi survives, stranded on a lifeboat
with several animals. Ultimately it is just Pi and a Bengal tiger
who miraculously survive 227 days at sea.
Lee has shot Life of Pi in 3D, utilising groundbreaking
techniques to capture the storys epic scope. India had much
to rejoice when Lee chose 17-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma to
essay the role of Pi. Sharma lives with his mathematician parents
in Delhi. He has no previous acting experience and was cast following
an extensive, months-long search. Over 3000 young men auditioned
for the part.
Not only is the film a global platform of Indian talent with its
cast and crew, but some of Indias most scenic spots were
tapped for the film, a first of its kind for a Hollywood film.
Amidst racks of fabulous saris and colorful fabrics, many of which
were used for the vibrant market scenes filmed in Pondicherry,
India, where Pi spent his early years, there is a rich multicultural
depth to the movie. One can see the countryside of Southern India
in the hillside town of Munnar along with the French elegance
of Pondicherry on 3D!
The film is based on Yann Martels book, one of the biggest
publishing events of the past decade. The book has sold over seven
million copies worldwide and continues to sell over 1,000 copies
per week and has won the prestigious Mann Booker Prize, and was
a New York Times bestseller for over a year.
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