Dev Patel, a British-Indian actor, has been nominated at the Oscars 2017 in the “Supporting Actor” category for “Lion”. He said that he is overwhelmed with his nomination at the Oscars.
The British-Indian actor shot to fame with Danny Boyle’s 2009 Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”. In the movie “Lion”, he plays the role of an Australian-Indian who in search of his lost family in India and goes about this adventure with the help of Google maps.
“I’m sitting here with my mouth wide open figuring out how this happened. I’m feeling overwhelmingly grateful right now,” Patel told following the nomination.
“Lion” is based on the real life memoir of Saroo Brierley titled ‘A Long Way Home’ and he took six months to prepare for the role which he believes is a career-defining part for him.
Talking about his role in the Garth Davis-directed drama, Patel had told PTI that it felt really good to be recognized.
“The film has opened people to my potential. After ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, it was really hard for me to get quality work. You think it would be easy but it is actually quite a struggle. I felt pigeon-holed. But I kept working hard and have been patient for many years now. So, when a role like this came, I gave everything that I had to do justice to it. It feels really good when it is recognized,” Patel said.
“Lion”, which co-stars Nicole Kidman, is also nominated in the Best Picture category alongside awards favourite romantic musical “La La Land”, “Arrival”, family drama “Manchester by Sea”, “Moonlight”, war movie “Hacksaw Ridge”, “Hidden Figures”, African-American drama “Fences” and “Hell or High Water”.
The 2017 Academy Awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood on February 26.