Ang Lee, a five-time Oscar nominee, previously won the trophy for his 2005 gay cowboys drama Brokeback Mountain. (Image: AP)
Los Angeles:
Taiwanese-American Ang Lee beatmaster directors like Steven Spielberg and Michael Haneke totake home the best director Oscar for Life of Pi, hisvisually stunning 3D tale of an Indian boy adrift in the oceanfor months with a Bengal tiger.
With his second Oscar win, Lee brings focus back toIndia, whose culture and ethos are an important part of thenarrative and unlike previous Academy-winner SlumdogMillionaire which earned some brickbats for promoting slumporn, Lee has presented Pondicherry and Munnar beautifullythrough his 3D lenses.
Ang Lee, 58, beat Spielberg (Lincoln), Haneke (Amour),David O Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) and indiefilmmaker Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) to winhis second Academy in the directing category.
"I really need to share this with everybody who worked inLife of Pi. I need to thank Yann Martel for writing thismarvelous book...," Lee said in his speech before ending itwith a 'Namaste'.
The auteur, a five-time Oscar nominee, previously won thetrophy for his 2005 gay cowboys drama Brokeback Mountain.
Like Life of Pi, his Crouching Tiger, Hiden Dragon wasnominated for best picture and directing honours.
In the film, an adaptation of Yann Martel's Booker-prizewinning novel, Lee took on the challenge of filming the movie,mostly set in the ocean, with an almost entirely Indian castsof newcomer Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Adil Hussain.
He spent four years translating the book to the screenthat included building an enormous wave tank to shoot oceanscenes besides creating a terrifyingly believable tigerthrough the help of CGI.
The movie narrates the story of Pi, a zookeeper's son inPondicherry, who finds the world he knows swept awaywhen his family is killed in a storm while on their way toCanada. Pi escapes, set adrift in a lifeboat that is also therefuge of an enormous Bengal tiger.
Lee made several trips, including one to promote thefilm, to India to research and cast the movie. He chose thethen 17-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma to play the lead from 3000hopefuls.
In an interview to PTI during his trip to Mumbai, Lee hadsaid that he felt a sense of belonging to Pi's journey, whichsomehow mirrored his own struggles to direct the technicallysuperb spectacle.
The filmmaker, who is behind genre-defying movies likeSense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,Hulk and Brokeback Mountain, also credited destiny forbringing the movie to him after it changed hands with manydirectors.
"When I started doing the movie I felt like I had a senseof belonging. I started longing to be a part of it and themovie became mine," Lee had said.
With his second Oscar win, Lee brings focus back toIndia, whose culture and ethos are an important part of thenarrative and unlike previous Academy-winner SlumdogMillionaire which earned some brickbats for promoting slumporn, Lee has presented Pondicherry and Munnar beautifullythrough his 3D lenses.
Ang Lee, 58, beat Spielberg (Lincoln), Haneke (Amour),David O Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) and indiefilmmaker Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) to winhis second Academy in the directing category.
"I really need to share this with everybody who worked inLife of Pi. I need to thank Yann Martel for writing thismarvelous book...," Lee said in his speech before ending itwith a 'Namaste'.
The auteur, a five-time Oscar nominee, previously won thetrophy for his 2005 gay cowboys drama Brokeback Mountain.
Like Life of Pi, his Crouching Tiger, Hiden Dragon wasnominated for best picture and directing honours.
In the film, an adaptation of Yann Martel's Booker-prizewinning novel, Lee took on the challenge of filming the movie,mostly set in the ocean, with an almost entirely Indian castsof newcomer Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Adil Hussain.
He spent four years translating the book to the screenthat included building an enormous wave tank to shoot oceanscenes besides creating a terrifyingly believable tigerthrough the help of CGI.
The movie narrates the story of Pi, a zookeeper's son inPondicherry, who finds the world he knows swept awaywhen his family is killed in a storm while on their way toCanada. Pi escapes, set adrift in a lifeboat that is also therefuge of an enormous Bengal tiger.
Lee made several trips, including one to promote thefilm, to India to research and cast the movie. He chose thethen 17-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma to play the lead from 3000hopefuls.
In an interview to PTI during his trip to Mumbai, Lee hadsaid that he felt a sense of belonging to Pi's journey, whichsomehow mirrored his own struggles to direct the technicallysuperb spectacle.
The filmmaker, who is behind genre-defying movies likeSense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,Hulk and Brokeback Mountain, also credited destiny forbringing the movie to him after it changed hands with manydirectors.
"When I started doing the movie I felt like I had a senseof belonging. I started longing to be a part of it and themovie became mine," Lee had said.
