Synopsis

After being separated from his family as a young boy in India, Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple and grows up far from his birthplace. Years later, fragmented memories and Google Earth help him reconstruct the route he traveled and begin a determined search for his biological family, forcing him to confront questions of identity, memory, belonging, and home.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is based on Saroo Brierley's nonfiction memoir, A Long Way Home, which recounts his real-life search for his birthplace and family.

• Preparation included extensive travel through India. The production team visited Kolkata and Saroo's childhood area, while Saroo's birth and adoptive mothers met there for the first time during the film's development.

• Thousands of children were considered for the role of young Saroo. Sunny Pawar was selected after screen tests and later became known for his natural, emotionally direct performance.

• Google assisted the production with the scenes involving Google Earth, helping the filmmakers make Saroo's digital search feel authentic.

• One nighttime sequence at Kolkata's Howrah Bridge was filmed between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. The production was allowed to close one side of the heavily used bridge.

• The visual design contrasts India's dry, ochre-colored landscapes with the water surrounding Hobart, Tasmania. The filmmakers used the sea as a recurring image connected to Saroo's inner life and his adopted home.

• Butterflies serve as a recurring spiritual motif. Saroo associated them with the presence and guidance of his older brother, and the production incorporated that idea as a subtle visual thread.

• Dev Patel pursued the role before the screenplay was finished and completed a four-and-a-half-hour screen test. He also changed his physique and worked with a dialect coach to portray the adult Saroo.

• Lion premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016. It received six Academy Award nominations and won two BAFTAs, for supporting actor and adapted screenplay.

• Made on a reported $12 million budget, the film earned more than $140 million worldwide and became one of the most commercially successful Australian films of its era.