PM congratulates 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Smile Pinki' teams

New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday congratulated the creative teams of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Smile Pinki' for their Oscar wins and said their achievement is a tribute to the Indian film industry.

'The achievement of the creative teams of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Smile Pinki' is a recognition of their vast talent. Their achievement is a tribute to the Indian film industry, which is a reservoir of multi-disciplinary talent which the medium of cinema embraces.'

'The winners have done India proud and all those involved in the making of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Smile Pinki' have our heartiest congratulations,' he said.

'I am delighted to congratulate A.R. Rahman on winning the Oscar for Best Original Score, the Rahman-Gulzar team for winning the Oscar for the Best Original Song 'Jai Ho', Resul Pookutty on winning the Oscar for Sound Mixing and the creative team of the Short Documentary 'Smile Pinki' on winning the Oscar for the Best Short Documentary at the Academy Awards ceremony.'

British director Danny Boyle's hit film not only won the Oscars for best picture and best director at Sunday night's annual Academy Awards ceremony at Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, but also in six other categories including two for Rahman.

Rahman picked up the awards for his best original score and for also the best original song 'Jai ho' from the film with lyrics by Gulzar and Sukhwinder Singh as the lead singer.

Pookutty shared the Oscar with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke in the sound mixing category for the rags-to-riches film.

'Smile Pinki', which has bagged the best short documentary Oscar, is a 39-minute documentary made by American filmmaker Megan Mylan on the problems faced by a little girl till she got her cleft-lip surgery done.