Newcomer Suraj Sharma Cast In LIFE OF PI

After auditioning over 3000 teenagers, director Ang Lee has found his lead for LIFE OF PI. Suraj Sharma will take on the lead role of 16 year old Pi Patel, in the film adaptation of Yann Martel’s Mann Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.

The story follows Pi Patel, a teenager from Pondicherry, India who sets sail on a freighter bound for Canada. Along with Pi is his father’s collection of zoo animals: a zebra, a spotted hyena, a orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. An accident occurs on the freighter, and Pi is stranded in a 26-foot lifeboat with the animals for 227 days.

Sharma, a 17-year old student from Delhi, India will make his acting debut in Life of Pi which is set to begin shooting in January.