India-born Australian businessman Saroo Brierley, whose intriguing life journey has been captured on celluloid in “Lion”, on Wednesday praised actor Dev Patel for portraying him in the film.
The British actor is nominated for an Academy Award for a supporting role in “Lion” — the autobiographical account of Saroo’s experiences.
After the theatrical release of the film in India was announced, Saroo said, “Dev is an amazing guy. He worked really hard for five months and concentrated only on this movie since this is a kind of movie that doesn’t come around often with time. I am so happy that I am also part of this amazing story.”
About his association with the film, Saroo explained, “The director and the scriptwriter had to go through the journey I had. At the time of writing the script, they wrote the draft first which was written by Luke Davies in association with Garth and then he gave that to me to read.”
“Lion” received six Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Patel), Best Supporting Actress (Kidman) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sharing the experience, he said, “We wanted to be true to the real story of the journey. Everyone was putting effort to bring out the grassroots in the terms of capturing the moments.”
“There are so many attributes to talk. For me, it’s so emotionally overpowering that it took time to settle down. My story is a testimony of human spirit and makes you think about who you are. This is an emotional roller-coaster,” he said.
Directed by Garth Davis, the film stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sunny Pawar.
“Lion” is releasing in India on February 24.
