Sunny Pawar was the star of the Oscars. And there is one man who spotted him from among thousands of hopefuls. No wonder he sat right next to the eight-year-old boy wonder from Lion on Oscar night.
Pravesh Sahni — whose Delhi-based Take One Productions coordinated the India shoot of Lion, nominated for six Oscars — is not new to big Holly. Slumdog Millionaire to Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Sahni has managed the India shoot of all these films. But this time, Sahni found himself with Team Lion at the Oscars, accompanying Sunny and dad Dilip Pawar to the extravaganza and hobnobbing with the Holly glitterati.
t2 caught up with Sahni...
Being at the Oscars must have been a big high….
I knew that Lion was going to the Oscars, but to get an invitation from the Academy to be there was special. I was not only there at the Oscars, but also at the pre and post parties. All the invites for the Oscars come from the Academy itself, but Team Lion pushed my name, primarily because 80 per cent of the film was shot in India.
Sunny was the little big star of the Oscars. What was it like being there with him?
Although Sunny wasn’t nominated in any category, I would definitely say he was the biggest star of the Oscars. Everyone was in love with him. Holly’s biggest stars wanted to click pictures with him. He was waving at everyone and posing on the red carpet with so much confidence… and he wasn’t taught any of it! There would be a break at the awards after every 15 minutes and the who’s who of the industry would turn around and want a picture with him… and I would end up being the one taking the picture!
Sunny was back to Dolby Theatre at 5am the next morning to shoot for a show called After The Oscars... he was the highlight of that show.
Now, Sunny needs exposure, but he also needs to study. He needs a good agent. He has to learn English if he wants to do international cinema. He needs to be guided well and I am always there for him. When I landed back in India, the first thing I did was call up Sunny. Sunny is a very caring and affectionate boy… I wasn’t well in LA and he was so concerned.
You were one of those who picked Sunny for the part of the young Saroo Brierley. What clinched it for him?
Every casting is a process of elimination and we chose Sunny out of some 1,800 kids. He was just five when he was picked, and it’s to director Garth Davis’s credit that he really trained Sunny well. Sunny has a lot of confidence but at age five and facing the camera for the first time, he had no idea what to do… it was Garth Davis all the way.
When you worked on Lion, did you think it would become so big?
I always had the feeling that it would end up being a good film because of the kind of passion put in. But honestly, none of us knew that it would end up with six Oscar nominations. This is my fourth film that has gone to the Oscars and I feel very proud of Lion.
What was it like shooting the film in Calcutta?
The Calcutta leg of the shoot was relatively smooth. We managed to shut down Howrah Bridge completely at night for a shot and I am really thankful to the West Bengal government for making it possible. I feel that Calcutta has a lot of potential, with great infrastructure and locations, to host shoots for international projects, provided the government does something about the labour unions.
