In his very first film role Indian actor Suraj Sharma stars in Life of Pi, an action-packed adventure from acclaimed director Ang Lee. Elaine Lipworth speaks to the aspiring actor.


The visually stunning 3D drama focuses on a boy who is adrift at sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger after his family is drowned in a shipwreck.


Based on the award-winning novel by Yann Martel, it is a story about survival and courage against the odds.


It was the chance of a lifetime: to star in Ang Lee’s epic film LIFE OF PI. 
Suraj Sharma never expected to be picked for the role about a boy who survives a perilous journey on a lifeboat with only a tiger for company, but at just 17 years old, he beat more than 3,000 challengers, following a month long search.

Sharma had no acting experience, but Ang Lee, the masterful Oscar winning director saw potential in the charismatic and naturally talented boy from Delhi and cast him in the leading role. 

The film is based on Yann Martel’s novel, a modern classic about Piscine Patel, (known as Pi) who lives with his zoo keeping family in Pondicherry.

They decide to emigrate to Canada, taking their animals along with them and set off on a huge freighter ship, steaming from India across the Pacific.

But a terrible storm destroys the ship. The family and most of the animals perish. Pi survives, stranded on a lifeboat with several animals. Ultimately it is just Pi and a Bengal tiger who miraculously survive 227 days at sea.

Much of the movie was filmed in Taiwan at a purpose built studio in an old airport in the city of Taichung. The other scenes were filmed in Pondicherry India, where the story begins.

“We searched throughout India for a young man who had the innocence to capture our attention, the depth of character to break our hearts, and the physicality needed to embody Pi on his journey,” says Ang Lee, explaining why he cast Sharma in the lead role.

“During his audition, Suraj filled the room with emotion, much of which he conveyed simply through his eyes. His natural ability to believe and stay in the world of the story is a rare treasure.” 

Also appearing in the film are Gérard Depardieu, Irrfan Khan and Rafe Spall. 

Born and raised in Delhi with his brother and sister, both Sharma’s parents are mathematicians. The young actor is highly musical, trained in Hindustani vocal and tabla, as well as keyboard and guitar. He is skilled in martial arts and is a keen soccer player.

Sharma began filming Life of Pi when he was 17 and actually celebrated his 18th birthday with the film crew in the midst of shooting the film’s lifeboat scenes in the massive outdoor wave tank built in Taichung especially for the movie. 

How did you end up landing this fantastic role? 
“I had never acted but I knew a little about acting because my younger brother has appeared in two movies and my mother used to tell me I should act too.  But he was the outgoing kid and I was the shy one; I just kept to myself.

The weird thing is that I went to the audition with my brother because he promised to buy me lunch and I was hungry! I was waiting for him and the casting director came up to me and said, ‘you look about the right age - you should just audition too.’ And I thought I might as well. I just had to read something out of a survival manual.

I didn’t even know what the movie was. Honestly, I didn’t even think of it as a real audition and afterwards my brother and I went for lunch to Subway.  As I progressed through the different stages of auditions it turned from a joke to the most important thing in my life.”

What was your response when you found out you had won the role?
“I thought someone was playing a prank on me. I didn’t believe it.  I was just numb and I was so excited and my brother was madly excited for me. I started screaming: ‘thank you.’ I went crazy. Suddenly there was so much energy in the air.
I was really happy and I ran up to my Mom and said ‘I got the role.’ It was my first, what I would call ‘big achievement’.  I just felt really lucky.”

What is the story all about?
It is all about Pi, a sixteen year old boy who grows up in a zoo with his family in India. Certain things happen which force them to move to Canada and they take their entire zoo with them on a ship.
The ship sinks one stormy night and Pi’s whole family drowns. Pi is left alone on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger. Eventually he’s left just with the tiger (called Richard Parker) and he has to try to survive with the tiger on the Pacific Ocean.”

What was it like sharing the screen with a tiger (well several tigers were used to play Richard Parker)?
“There were four different tigers of different sizes and personalities.  We never really filmed with them but sometimes I spent six hours a day watching them being trained.  I’d watch how they move and see how they were behaving. 
I’d kind of map it my head so I would have a sense of how the tiger was going to react and what he was going through. When we were filming my scenes I would just imagine Richard Parker in front of me.
Funnily enough, I’ve always been fascinated with tigers and for some reason I know instinctively how they move. It was hard but it was cool, like having an imaginary best friend. It became a weird combination of memory and imagination.”

Did you identify at all with Pi?
“I think somehow inside of me there’s a little bit of me that is very much like Pi. I can’t really say what that is but I know I can feel it.” 

What was it like working with Ang Lee?
“It was extremely scary in the beginning because he is such a great director. Also I had never opened up to anyone at all before.
Ang was the first person I talked to about myself and funnily enough I felt really comfortable with him after a few minutes.  Ang is awesome. I feel like there is no one who knows me better than Ang and I mean no one.  Instead of looking at me he looked inside of me, if that makes any sense.  He gave out a lot of himself to everyone in the crew. He put an incredible amount of himself into the movie.”

Was there any particularly challenging scene? 
“Early in the shoot we were filming the storm scene on the ship.  I walked up to the set and there was a huge gimbal with a huge ship on top of it. There was rain and wind blowing and lightning, a massive storm raging and I heard ‘action’ for the first time.
That was a big moment for me. I had to walk out into the storm and act as though I was enjoying it, having fun.
I had to slip and slide around all over the place and then the ship begins to sink.   I slipped and hit my knee on the edge, and it was the first hit I took during filming. After that I never complained.” 

There is a fantastic supporting cast; was anyone particularly inspiring?
“I’d say I love every one of those actors, but Adil Hussain played my father and to some extent he had a fatherly role and helped me figure out many things about acting.”   

How did the experience of making the film affect you?
“It was the ultimate adventure. We worked long hours and there was a lot of emotion and learning for me. I was just a normal kid from Delhi before LIFE OF PI.  Now I want my whole life to be an adventure.   I want every minute of my life to be challenging and exciting with things to overcome all the time.”