Taiwanese-born American director Ang Lee says he has tried to portray a “real” India in his film ‘Life of Pi’ and maintained that it is high time that Asians offered some fresh and universal ideas to Hollywood.

Lee feels the West has dried up on emotions. “They are pretty dried up on emotions in the West now. Hollywood has been mainly dominated by Europe and Americans and it is high time that Asians offer something. The movie business always looks for fresh, specific things and they also look for something universal,” the filmmaker said.

“Indian movies are fresh and they are pretty new but for Hollywood film-making you have to go beyond specific and find universal idea for everybody, that’s how it works,” he added.

The 58-year-old filmmaker insisted that extremes like glorifying India or showing its darker side should be avoided, in the context of Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, which had shown poverty and slum life in India.

“I think either ways it is unfair (to show darker side or glorify India) as Indians are in the middle. If some outsider comes he or she will take or show what they need or like. I tried to justify the realism, tried to show the real India,” Lee added.

“I tried to make it realistic. People come here for specific reasons and do what they like. But I feel it is unfair to show it (darker side),” he said.

The Oscar-winning director is here to promote his India-centric film, which largely has an Indian cast including lead actor Suraj Sharma, selected out of 3,000 teenagers, besides Irrfan Khan and Tabu.

The film is shot in 3D and Lee has explored the markets and temples of Puducherry and Munnar, a popular hill station in Kerala.

’Life of Pi’ is based on Canadian author Yann Martel’s Booker Prize winning novel. “I felt the book had inherent material that romances and idealises India in a very specific way. It is the allegory that India is.”

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