Indians at the Oscars Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lifetime Achievement

Ray has also been awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the Government of France and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He also did the scripting, editing, scoring, casting, cinematography and art direction of his own films. Apart from filmmaking, Ray was also a writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer and film critic.

Answer: Nights of Cabiria

"Nights of Cabiria" was an Italian film directed by Federico Fellini.
"Mother India" starred Nargis, Sunil Dutt and Rajendra Kumar. During the filming, Sunil Dutt saved Nargis during a fire sequence and the two married within a year. Their marriage had to be kept under wraps for a while because Dutt played her son in the movie. The opening sequence of the movie showed the producer's logo, which was a hammer and a sickle. It had to be edited out for the Oscars since the Cold War was on at the time.

Answer: True

"An Encounter with Faces" was one of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's first attempts at filmmaking. He also won the National Award for Best Short Experimental Film for "Murder at Monkey Hill" (1977).

Answer: Bhanu Athaiya

Bhanu Athaiya won an Oscar for Best Costume Design for her work in the film "Gandhi" (1982). The award was shared with John Mollo.

Answer: Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar and George Fenton secured a joint nomination for their work in the 1982 film "Gandhi". They lost to John Williams for "E.T.".
Ravi Shankar is the father of famous singer, Norah Jones.

Answer: Salaam Bombay!

"Salaam Bombay!" was directed by Mira Nair and the film was released in 1988. Mira Nair wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Sooni Taraporewala. It was filmed on location in Bombay. Though the film didn't win the Oscar, it did win the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival. The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (1988) went to a Danish film "Pelle the Conqueror".

Answer: Cricket

In the film, the British captain in charge of the village challenged the villagers to a game of cricket. If they won, they wouldn't have to pay taxes for three years but if they lost, they'd have to pay three times the amount.
"Lagaan" lost out to the Bosnian film "No Man's Land".

Answer: True

The movie was shot in Rajasthan on a shoestring budget. The plot revolved around a 10-year-old Pakistani Muslim boy who wandered across the Indian border. He was sheltered from the border security forces by a Hindu Brahmin family. Julfuqar Ali, who played the small boy, was a street child and none of the other lead actors had acted in a movie prior to this.

Answer: "Barso Re" from "Guru"

"Rang De Basanti" was India's entry in the Best Foreign Language film category but it didn't make the short list. The Oscar for Best Original Song went to "I Need To Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth".

Answer: Canada

This is the final film in Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy which includes "Fire" (1996) and "Earth" (1998). She initially began filming it in 2000 with a different cast in Varanasi, India. Shooting was disrupted by Hindu fundamentalists because the movie portrayed the plight of widows in India in a negative light. Mehta later resumed filming in Sri Lanka after four years. George Lucas had taken out a full-page advertisement in "Variety" magazine to support Mehta in her struggle to make this film.