“Life of Pi” won the lion’s share—or perhaps the tiger’s share—of Oscars on Sunday: original score, visual effects, cinematography, and Ang Lee’s award for best director.
The film’s story begins in Pondicherry, India, a small city with close ties to France as a former French colony. Eastern and Western cultures mingle here, and so do religions.
The main character, a young boy by the name of Pi Patel, has a curiosity for religions that leads him to become Muslim, Hindi, and Catholic all at once. On Sunday night, Lee jokingly thanked the “movie God” as he accepted his Oscar.
Lee said, “I feel like this movie belongs to the world.”
Although the story takes place in Pondicherry, India, much of the film was shot in Taiwan.
Back in Pondicherry, a young film editor rejoiced in Ang Lee’s victory. “I was thinking why not Ang Lee and why always Stephen Spielberg?” Bini Chandran said. “Stephen has been winning lots of other awards.”
Epoch Times reporter Venus Upadhayaya, whose home is in Pondicherry, says there has been much excitement in the small city over its rise to fame. The city’s government is rolling out a tourism campaign fed by the “Life of Pi” energy.
The city’s tourism board, ActuPondy, writes on its website: “Team ActuPondy wishes Team Ang Lee all the very best for the Oscars and to add another golden feather to the crown of the most sought destination for peace, poetry and now main stream media.”
