A Life changing film for the young actor of Pi
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This film image released by 20th Century Fox shows Suraj Sharma as Pi Patel in a scene from Life of Pi. Despite no prior acting experience or ambition, Sharma managed to separate himself from 3,000 applicants and emerged through four rounds of auditions as the star in one of the most anticipated movies of the year. -- PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) - The only thing more unlikely than a movie about a boy adrift on a ship with a Bengali tiger is the tale of the film's star.
Teenager Suraj Sharma went along with his acting brother to a Delhi, India, audition of Life of Pi purely as a favour, motivated by the promise of a free meal.
"He said, 'Come with me because I don't want to go alone,"' Sharma recalled in an interview at Lincoln Center shortly before the film premiered at the New York Film Festival in September.
"I said, 'Fine, as long as you buy me a sandwich afterwards.' That sandwich got me Pi.'
