A five-year-old boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta. After several misadventures finds himself a new life and home in Australia. 25 years later in search of his roots he lands in India again, does it read like the screenplay of a film? Well, for most of us yes, but this is the life story of Saroo Brierley, whose real life translates on reel with Lion. The film, which scooped six Oscar nominations including one for best picture. 34-year-old Saroo's life in Tasmania, is far removed from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but ever since his book Long way Home was adapted into the screenplay for Lion featuring Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, life has been one whirlwind of red carpets, TV interviews and movie promotions.
Used to interviewing film stars "the reel hero's ," I was rather keen to meet this "real hero,". After all there are not many five-year-old's like Saroo who lived through what he did, who would have thought even little Saroo himself when he was lost on a railway platform, that from a nondescript hamlet in India he would find himself half way across the world in Tasmania, living a life far removed from the one he had been used too.