Question 5: Who is the first Indian to win an Academy Award?
A) A.R. Rehman
B) Bhanu Athaiya
C) Satyajit Ray
D) Resul Pookutty
Answer: Bhanu Athaiya
Bhanu Athaiya was the first Indian woman to win an Academy award, winning the Best Costume Design category in 1983 for her work in Richard Attenborough’s film, Gandhi.
Born in 1929 in Kolhapur Maharashtra, she was an Indian costume designer and painter. She was the third of seven children and her father was a self-taught artist and photographer who worked in the productions of Indian filmmaker Baburao Painter.
Athaiya started her career as a costume designer in Hindi cinema with Guru Dutt’s 1956 superhit film C.I.D. Eventually, she went on to design costumes for over a100 films including Shahenshah.
She received huge recognition for her rich visual take on 19th-century India in Ashutosh Gowariker’s critically acclaimed film Lagaan. Athaiya’s work on the movie earned her Best Costume Design at India’s prestigious National Film Awards in 2002.
Following her death at the 91 due to a brain tumour in 2020, Sunil Seth , the chairman of the Fashion Design Council India in a statement shared with CNN said, “We, as a design fraternity, salute her excellence not just in cinema, but also in proving to the world the huge role fashion plays to shape a personality, both on and off the screen”.
KBC 14: Which institution developed and maintains the National Digital Library of India?
KBC 14: The capital of which Indian Union Territory has the word ‘Port’ in it?
KBC 14: The Ken-Betwa river linking project will connect tributaries of which river?
