Slumdog Millionaire|Pinky Sonkar on red carpet |Pinky Sonkar from Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh reached LA for the Oscar festivities on Sunday.
India's Pinky at the Oscar Red-CarpetAll our attention and money may be riding on Slumdog Millionaire, but Anil Kapoor, A.R Rahman and Freida Pinto aren't the only Indians who will be at the coveted Oscar red-carpet. An eight-year-old little girl who goes by the name of Pinky Sonkar will also have this pleasure.
This is because Pinky is the star of a 40-minute documentary about Smile Pinky by American filmmaker Magan Mylan which has been nominated for Best Documentary.
Pinky, who lives in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, has finally reached L.A where she will be part of the Oscar festivities on Sunday.
Pinky had stopped smiling, even stopped going to school because she was ashamed of her cleft lip, a deformity 35,000 children are born with in India every year. Then this year, The Smile Train arrived in Pinky's village and her world changed forever.
A seemingly routine plastic surgery was offered free by doctors' abroad. ''She tried to smile but she was in a little pain so she couldn't. But her eyes were saying so many more things. She looked at her face and then at my face and I think that is the best gratification I can get," said Dr Subodh K Singh, Plastic surgeon.
The story was captured by American filmmaker Magan Mylan for the world in a film he called Smile Pinky. This film has now been nominated for the Best Documentary at the Oscars and Pinky has been invited.
Pinky is currently in Delhi to get her visa for US but the young girl doesn't know what for. ''The way I look at it is that if Smile Pinki wins an Oscar, it will bring the problem of clefts centrestage and probably change the lives of thousands of Pinkys who are still living with cleft lips," said Satish Kalra, Director, The Smile Train.
Pinky is now all set to walk the red carpet in Los Angeles flashing that smile of change.
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