He’s the man of the moment. Australian filmmaker Garth Davis has notched up six Oscar nominations — including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Nicole Kidman and Best Supporting Actor for Dev Patel — for his made-in-Calcutta film Lion. Based on the real-life story of Saroo Brierley, the film touches upon an adopted Saroo’s efforts to trace his family in India, many decades after he got on a train as a five-year-old and found himself lost in Khandwa.

“It’s a film that will touch everyone on some sort of an emotional level,” Garth had told t2 while filming Lion in Calcutta in the winter of 2015. In India for a day for the film’s premiere in Mumbai, Garth spoke to t2 about his passion project, shooting in Calcutta and what you will find him doing on Oscar night. 

Not only have you made a film that’s creating waves worldwide, you now have six Oscar nominations to show off!
(Laughs) Thank you! It’s been such a journey on this movie that I am really happy and thrilled with these nominations. That’s not only because it celebrates the passion and hard work of all the people who have worked on this film, but it just also means that the film will be seen by many, many more people. I have made this movie for people… and I want more and more of them to see it. The Oscar nominations have brought about a lot more interest in our film… and I am happy about that. 

While you were making it, did you ever think it would become so big?

Aah, no… I didn’t know it would become this big, but I definitely knew it was going to touch people’s hearts. And that’s what it’s done. The thing that strikes me from every screening that we’ve had is people coming up and telling us their stories. This is a film which is not just a piece of entertainment, it’s something that will touch your heart and take away a piece of it, possibly. People have told me how much this film has given them hope. One guy came up to me and said: ‘I’m going to ring my mother straightaway!’ 

What is it about Saroo Brierley’s story that made you want to make it into a film?

I was bowled over by the fact that it was a true story, and I wanted to know more! The one thing that I sensed was how much love all the characters in this story had for each other. There’s a deep thread of spiritualism — something that helped Saroo engineer the miracle of finding his biological family after so many decades. That really drew me in. 

What was the process of collaborating with Saroo like and have you remained true to his book or taken cinematic liberties?
It’s a huge responsibility telling a true story and I spent a lot of time with Saroo and his mother (Sue Brierley). I retraced all of his steps in India and completely immersed myself in his story and the world of his story. His book A Long Way Home was obviously very helpful. Ultimately, the film involved a lot of research and meeting a lot of people involved with Saroo’s story. It meant having my boots on the ground and being in touch with the ethos and emotion of the story I was trying to tell. We did take some liberties along the way, because we had to, but a lot of it is true to the story. 

With actors as diverse as Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, what was the casting process like?

Each one has its own story. But what we were very sure about was that anyone we cast in this film had to be very passionate about it. This film is made from the heart, and so the performances also had to come from the heart. In the case of Nicole Kidman, she just read the script and fell in love with it immensely. Sue Brierley always wanted Nicole Kidman to play her and when Nicole said ‘yes’, it was a bit of fate coming together. 

Dev Patel was hunting down for the role from very early on. I just had to ensure that he fit the part and was also passionate about it. When I was sure about that, we did a lot of workshops together and I realised that there’s a side of him as an actor that the world hadn’t seen and which he was very keen to share. There was a lot of preparation on his part — he put in about seven-eight months of work — and I think what he’s come up with in Lion is a transformative performance.

With Sunny (Pawar), it was an extensive casting process that went on for about four-five months. After a lot of looking around, we zoomed in on these two boys — Sunny plays Saroo and Abhishek (Bharate) plays his brother Guddu. 

How was shooting the film in Calcutta?

I had been to India before, but it was my first time in Calcutta. I loved it… the vibrancy, the colours, the people. It’s got so much humanity… I loved working with the kids. It was an experience both terrifying and exciting. I say terrifying because the logistics were a nightmare, primarily because of the way I wanted to capture India. We were not taking the easy road because I have been very ambitious in the vision of this film. We shot on trains and train platforms… we even closed down Howrah Bridge to shoot on it. These are very complicated and populated locations and on top of it, we had to do a very nuanced performance by a five-year-old (Sunny) in the middle of it! It was very, very challenging. 

So what’s the mood going to be on Oscar night — will you be on the edge of your seat or just go in there to have a good time?

I think I’ll just enjoy my glass of champagne! (Laughs) For me, it’s like going to Mars, you know. You can’t take it too seriously… it’s an experience and you just have to be in the moment, I guess. To me, it’s just an adventure! 

You’ve moved on to making a film on Mary Magdalene. It’s a prickly subject for sure, but has it been as fulfilling as making Lion?

Anything to do with religion and faith will bring with it a world of criticism. But I believe it’s a beautiful story and a story that needs to be told. And I am glad I made it. 

Much before Lion, you were supposed to direct another Indian story — Shantaram. What’s the status?

I was attached to Shantaram (based on Gregory David Roberts’s bestseller) a long time ago, but I don’t know what’s happening on that at the moment. I do love that story and would love to make it, but I am not aware of any plans to bring that project back to life anymore. 

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A FILM FULL OF SERENDIPITIES, SAYS DAVIS

INDIA CALLING

When I was 19, I was travelling through Vietnam with my girlfriend. I got my palm read in Saigon and the woman said, ‘You are going to make a movie and you are going to be talking to a lot of people in India about that movie’. And I went, ‘I am not going to make a movie in India!’ I thought she was a hopeless palm reader!

BUTTERFLY EFFECT

This whole film is full of serendipities. Saroo would often talk to me about these butterflies in his village that he remembered. When he was lost on the streets of Calcutta, in his darkest moments, he would spot a butterfly and it reminded him of his brother. It was a sort of spiritual emblem. I really connected to that. I told my producer that I want the butterflies to be a part of the film’s tapestry. After that conversation, we went to a cocktail party together. It was a private event but suddenly this Indian man walked in selling butterfly-shaped pins for charity. 

Saroo was mispronouncing his name. It’s actually ‘Sheru’, which means ‘lion-hearted’ or ‘lion’. That’s where the title of the film comes from. I went to Khandwa (Saroo’s hometown) and started researching and clicking photographs. There was not a word of English anywhere in Khandwa. I had to pick six photos to show the producers. About six months later, I looked at a photograph carefully and I noticed it said ‘lion-heart’.

SAROO, A NORMAL GUY

I just thought he was a normal guy. Obviously, there is something guiding him. How he managed to navigate through that journey in his childhood without any damages is extraordinary. For me, though, it was the mothers who are so memorable. He was just book-ended by these incredible women. There was this great moment where both mothers (Sue, played by Nicole Kidman, and Kamla, played by Priyanka Bose) were hugging him and you see an Indian arm and an Australian arm around this one boy. This is a film about love. He has this incredible drive and belief in what he can achieve. I have never met anyone with that much determination. 

Karishma Upadhyay