11 INDIANS ABROAD GET PADMA AWARDS
New Delhi, January 25, 2008 (IANS)

The Padma awards list has a fair share of people of Indian origin abroad, including Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, London-based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, and Vikram Pandit, the newly appointed Citigroup CEO based in New York. The lone NRI among the 13 Padma Vibhushan awardees is the London-based Mittal, who is settled in London.

Among the Padma Bhushan awardees are six persons of Indian origin. These are Prof Kaushik Basu, Prof Padma Desai and Dr Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan (all three from the US) for literature and education; Lord Meghnad Desai for public affairs; Sunita Williams for astronautics; and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit for trade and industry.

The Padma Shri winners are filmmaker Manoj 'Night' Shyamalan (US), Pratap Pawar (UK) for Art, Dr Nirupam Bajpai (US) for literature and education, and Sant Singh Virmani (US) for science and engineering.

MANOJ 'NIGHT' SHYAMALAN GETS PADMA SHRI

Indian-American actor, director, producer and writer Manoj "Night" Shyamalan, whose two films - The Village and The Sixth Sense - earned nominations for Academy Awards, will be honoured with Padma Shri for his distinguished contribution to cinema.

Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan or M. "Night" Shyamalan is known for his supernatural plots, which usually end with a twist. He is also famous for filming his movies in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and enacting small roles in most of his films.

He was born in Pondicherry to Malayalee father Nelliattu C. Shyamalan, and Tamilian mother Jeyalakshmi. Both his parents are doctors by profession. In the 1960s, after the birth of their first child, Veena, his parents moved to the US. Later, his mother returned to the country, five months before giving birth to Shyamalan. The filmmaker spent his first six weeks in Pondicherry and then was raised in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, an affluent suburb of Philadelphia.

He attended the private Catholic grammar school Waldron Mercy Academy followed by the Episcopal Academy, a private Episcopalian high school in Lower Merion. Shyamalan completed his graduation from the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, in Manhattan, in 1992. It was here that he altered his middle name.

Since his childhood days Shyamalan wanted to be a filmmaker. At a young age he got his Super-8 camera and by the time he was 17 the Steven Spielberg fan had made 45 home movies. Though his father wanted Shyamalan to be a doctor, his mother encouraged him to follow his passion.

The 38 year-old creative expert made his first film, the semi-autobiographical drama "Praying with Anger", while he was still a New York University student, using money borrowed from family and friends. The film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12, 1992, and ran commercially at a theatre for one week. It was also featured on Canadian television. Filmed in Chennai, it is his only film to be shot outside Pennsylvania.

Shyamalan wrote and directed his second film "Wide Awake" in 1995, though it was not released until 1998. The drama dealt with a ten-year-old Catholic schoolboy who, after the death of his grandfather, searches for God. It was filmed in a school Shyamalan attended as a child and earned 1999 Young Artist Award nominations for best drama and actor Joseph Cross for best performance. Only in limited release, the film grossed $305,704.

The same year Shyamalan wrote the screenplay for "Stuart Little".

In 1993, Shyamalan married Indian psychologist Bhavna Vaswani with whom he has two daughters.

His next film "The Sixth Sense", a supernatural drama, was nominated for six Academy Awards including best editing, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best director, best picture, and best original screenplay. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America awarded it a Nebula Award for Best Script of 1999. The film had a $40-million budget, and grossed over $600 million at the box office worldwide.

While Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" received a mix response, "Signs" worked wonders at the box-office and "The Village" earned an Academy Award nomination for best original score.

Then he rolled out "Lady in the Water", which received four Golden Raspberry Award nominations, three of which were for Shyamalan himself - worst supporting actor, worst director and worst screenplay - as well as worst picture. Shyamalan bagged worst supporting actor and worst director awards.

The filmmaker is now all set to wow audiences with his next "The Happening".