Oscars 2024 – Lagaan fame Nitin Chandrakant Desai honoured in memoriam alongside Matthew Perry, Lee Sun Kyun and others

The Academy honors late artists every year as a part of the memoriam segment and this year Nitin Chandrakant Desai made it to the list.

Oscars 2024 Memoriam

The Oscars every year take a moment to honor, celebrate, and acknowledge the work and art of the many artists we lose. This year, the memoriam section made us all feel heavy like every year, and even Indians were left emotional as The Academy chose to honor one of the most talented art directors the country ever produced, Late Nitin Chandrakant Desai. The man behind some of the most iconic movies including Lagaan and Jodha Akbar, Nikhil was mentioned in the memoriam video alongside some of the biggest stalwarts of Hollywood and the world of cinema that left us in the year 2023.

Oscars 2024 Memoriam

The Oscars this year has been an event that has yielded some of the most unexpected things. While some spoke of the ceasefire, some advised to stop the atrocities, there was also lighthearted fun that unfolded, and of course John Cena chose to do the wildest things of them all. But amid all of the buzz and chaos when the memoriam segment was played on the screen on the Oscar stage, the noise faded and the audience looked at the screen with moist eyes as they remembered the ones who were gone.

The list has India’s Nitin Chandrakant Desai in the few initial names alongside Ryan O’Neal, Tom Wilkinson, Jane Birkin, Richard Roundtree, Glenda Jackson, Carl Weathers, Lee Sun Kyun, Matthew Perry, William Friedkin, and Norman Jewison. Treat Williams, Angus Cloud, Lance Reddick, Norman Lear, Burt Young, Lance Reddick, Ron Cephas Jones, Suzanne Somers, and Terence Davies didn’t make it to the main segment, but they were honored in separate slides.

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The memoriam video played Andrea Bocelli performing a rendition of ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ with son Matteo Bocelli. The segment did feel like a personal loss to the countless cinema fans from across the world who have rejoiced in the art these great talented artists made over the span of their careers.

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About Nitin Chandrakant Desai

The artist who started his career in 1987, Nitin Chandrakant Desai worked for decades in various Indian film industries. Majorly associated with the Marathi and Hindi film industry, the art director has given color to the visions of many ace filmmakers including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ashutosh Gowarikar, and Rajkumar Hirani. His most notable works include Lagaan, Jodha Akbar, Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Balgandharva, and more. Lagaan also went to the Oscars back in the day.

The art director was found dead in his workshop in Karjat, Mumbai, on August 2, 2023, under suspicious circumstances. The cause of his death was earlier reported to be suicide but there was no more found. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

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