Jai Ho! Oscar nominations for Rahman and Slumdog Millionaire

LA- Thursday, Jan 22. The 81st Academy Awards nominations, hosted by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, made millions of Indians overjoyed as their 'genius' composer Rahman grabbed a nomination, alongwith two other nominations for his team. This is the first ever nomination for an Indian in this category. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button led the way with 13 nominations, including Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actress (Tarajip Henson) and Best Director (David Fincher). Slumdog Millionaire gets 10 nominations.

Indian composer AR Rahman gets an Oscar nominationAfter bagging in the Golden Globe for best original score for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, AR Rahman has won an Oscar nomination in the same category.

Slumdog Millionaire bagged ten nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Danny Boyle, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Other nominations are: Best Original Score (A R Rahman), Best Song (Jai Ho), Best Sound Editing (Tom Sayers) and Best Sound Mixing (Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty).

Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE has received 10 Academy Award nominations in the following categories:

* Best Picture
* Achievement in Directing for Danny Boyle
* Adapted Screenplay for Simon Beaufoy
* Cinematography
* Film Editing
* Sound Editing
* Sound Mixing
* Original Score
* Two nominations for Original song for “Jai Ho” and “O Saya”. 

“It’s just amazing. For Slumdog Millionaire to be included in the nominations for the Oscars is a huge honour. When we first began working on the film I don’t think any of us ever imagined that we might end up attending the Oscars ceremony as a result. I’m just so proud to be a part of this project and I have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction to the film. Thank you to everyone who has supported us. I truly feel blessed” - Actor DEV PATEL

"Secretly and sometimes not so secretly, this is the nomination that floats in every screenwriter's dreams. I am fantastically happy and honoured- not just for myself but for Vikas Swarup's wonderful novel without which I would have never started my journey to the world's Maximum City, Mumbai."  Writer SIMON BEAUFOY

“I am overjoyed by these nominations and deeply grateful that the Academy has embraced the music of this film. Slumdog Millionaire has paid magical dividends for so many people around the globe.  I am deeply honoured to be a part of a film that has inspired so many.” Music Composer A.R. RAHMAN

In an unprecedented fortnight, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE has won four prestigious Golden Globe awards, been nominated for 11 BAFTA awards, had a record breaking 47% increase in box office in its second week on release and still retains the number one spot at the UK Box Office having now taken £7, 041, 524 in its first 13 days of release.

Resul Pookutty, Gulzar and Maya Arulpragasam

Resul has been nominated along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for sound mixing in Slumdog Millionaire.

Resul is a well known for sound direction in Bollywood. Prominent films he has worked in are Ghajini, Dus Kahaniyaan, Saawariya, Gandhi, My Father, Traffic Signal , Zinda, Black, Musafir and Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women.

A native of Kollam district in the Southern state of Kerala, Resul passed out of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, in 1995 and then moved to Mumbai to follow a career in Bollywood.

He has also been nominated for the 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for best sound in Slumdog Millionaire.

Indian poet Gulzar, who wrote lyrics for Jai Ho in the best song category, and Maya Arulpragasam whose name is there for the lyrics of the best song nominee O Saya which she has written jointly with Rahman, make Indians proud.

Ah, Kate!

Kate Winslet, who scooped two Golden Globes earlier this month, had to settle for one nomination for Best Actress in The Reader. Leaving the Oscar ceremony empty-handed would make Winslet the biggest loser among actresses in the history of the event. She has been nominated five times but never won.

Heath Ledger earned a supporting actor nomination on the one-year anniversary of his death for his last completed role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight."

Other supporting-actor nominees were Josh Brolin in "Milk," Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder," Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt," and Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."

The Oscar winners will be announced February 22 at the Kodak Theatre.

Jai Ho!