First Indian to win an Oscar passes away aged 91

Costume designer Bhanu Athaiya, the first Indian to win an Oscar, passed away in Mumbai on Thursday aged 91, the Press Trust of India reported, citing her daughter.

Athaiya won an Academy Award for her work in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 epic ‘Gandhi.’

Athaiya, the only Indian woman to win an Oscar, had a prolific career in India, working on some 200 films, including Bollywood classics such as 1965’s ‘Guide’ and 1980’s ‘Karz’ (Debt).

A trained fashion illustrator, she began designing costumes for films in the 1950s, later telling the Indian Express daily that she saw her career as “a way to express myself and let my imagination soar.”

Bhanu Athaiya worked with all top filmmakers including Oscar nominated film ‘Lagaan’.

She designed costumes for films like ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Chaudvin Ka Chaand’ ‘Kagaz Ke Phool’, ‘Waqt’, ‘Raat Aur Din’, ‘Guide’, ‘Teesri Manzil’, ‘Johny Mera Naam’, ‘Karz’, ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, ‘Razia Sultan’, ‘Agneepath’, ‘Ajooba’ and ‘1942 – A Love Story’ and others.

The last film for which she designed costumes were Aamir Khan’s ‘Lagaan’ and Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Swades.’