Indian Origin Actor, Producer Rahul Thakker Wins Oscar In Technical Category

While there is already a buzz, both positive and negative, around the Oscars this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be presenting 10 technical and scientific achievements as part of its yearly Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation. The ceremony is to be held on February 13 and will precede the actual Academy Awards, which are to be announced on February 28.

While Indian audiences have already seen India have a taste of success at the Academy Awards recently, with AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty both being honoured for Slumdog Millionare, this year too will be of special significance. One of the awardess, Rahul Thakkar is of Indian origin and will be awarded the Technical Achievement Award for the “groundbreaking design” with which he has contributed to cinema. The announcement for the same was made on the official website for the Academy Awards and has been received with much jubilation.

According to the statement from the Academy, the award was given out to “Richard Chuang and Rahul Thakkar for the groundbreaking design, and to Andrew Pilgrim, Stewart Birnam and Mark Kirk for the review workflows and advanced playback features, of the DreamWorks Animation Media Review System”.

The Academy also mentioned that in the two decades that it has been in development, this system has allowed digital theatre and desktop review. It has even continued to provide integrated, consistent, scalable and artist driven playback as well as interactive reviews.

While Indian presence at the main awards ceremony will be missed out on, this is certainly a bright spark and recognition of the technical talent and expertise bought by Indian origin individuals to cinema at a global level.