Manimajra residents hope `Zero Dark 30` will win Oscar

Chandigarh: The residents of Manimajra town in Chandigarh, where large parts of Kathryn Bigelow`s Oscar nominated film ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ were shot, are hoping that the film will win the prestigious award.

A bunch of residents of the place, a suburb which falls on the edge of Chandigarh on way to Panchkula, are excited as they feel that the film has already put the place on the world map. If it wins an award at the Oscars later this month it could further put the town back into spotlight. "We are excited that Oscar award function is round-the-corner. We hope that the film wins the prestigious award," said Manimajra resident, Sushil Verma. The grand Oscar ceremony will be held on February 24. Subhash Saria, president of Manimajra Beopar Mandal, said that they were proud that their town had been chosen for shooting of an international film. "We wish it does well and wins many awards," he said. Last year, some parts of the film were shot in Manimajra, narrow bazaars of which could easily resemble Old Delhi`s Chandni Chowk, and the town was turned into Abbotabad, over 600 km from here. The Manimajra market area had turned into a Pakistani bazaar overnight as Bigelow had shot the film in the town and in some parts of Chandigarh including Sector 26 and Sector 15 markets in March last year and also engaged several locals in the film. Another resident Manish Gupta recalled that the during the film`s shooting, many shops had hoardings written in Urdu while burqa-clad women and men in skull-caps were teeming in the area. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is a chronicle of the decade long hunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy SEAL Team 6 in 2011 in Pakistan`s Abbottabad town. PTI