India’s first Oscar-winner Bhanu Athaiya passes away at 91

Veteran costume designer Bhanu Athaiya, India’s first Academy Award winner, breathed her last at the age of 91. Bhanu had bagged the most coveted Oscar award for Best Costume Design for Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ that released in 1983. The film starred Ben Kingsley in the titular role. The news of Bhanu’s death was confirmed by her daughter Radhika.

Speaking to Times of India, Radhika shared that her mother Bhanu Athaiya passed away in her sleep on October 15. The veteran designer was apparently suffering from pneumonia and she had slight fever and cough.

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Talking about how easy it was to decide to bring Bhanu on board for ‘Gandhi’, director Richard Attenborough had told the Academy, “It took me 17 long years to set up ‘Gandhi’, my dream film, and just 15 minutes to make up my mind that Bhanu Athaiya was the right person to create the many hundreds of Indian costumes that would be required to bring it to the screen.”

Apart from ‘Gandhi’, Athaiya has also designed costumes for some of the most popular Hindi films. She last designed costumes for Aamir Khan’s ‘Lagaan’ and Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Swades’.

The talented costume designer also has films like ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’,‘Guide’,  ‘Razia Sultan’, ‘Agneepath’,‘Kagaz Ke Phool’, ‘Waqt’, ‘Raat Aur Din’,  ‘Teesri Manzil’, ‘Johny Mera Naam’ and ‘Karz’ and several others to her credit.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to Bhanu’s family and friends. May her soul rest in peace.

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Pooja Sharma

Cinephile. Bibliophile. Pluviophile. Selenophile. Autophile. Aesthete. Blood group- Tea positive. Poetry lover. Sucker of rom-coms.

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