Word: shyamalan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...name he was born with was Manoj Shyamalan. His parents, physicians living in the U.S., went to Pondicherry, India, to have him, then moved to the Philadelphia area when he was a few months old. Although the family is Hindu, young Manoj was sent to a Roman Catholic school "for the discipline." He says he felt like an outsider and remembers teachers saying that people who weren't baptized were going to hell. (Says Shyamalan: "I'd be, like, 'I'm not baptized, so I guess I'll see you guys later.'") He also recalls being called in front...
From his office walls, M. Night Shyamalan's idols and inspirations look down on him. His production company, located in Conshohocken, Pa., just outside Philadelphia, has a cozy main room that is dominated by several framed movie posters. There's one from "The Exorcist," which is one of Shyamalan's favorite horror films. There's also a poster from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," a film directed by one of Shyamalan's heroes, Steven Spielberg. And finally, there's a large poster from "Die Hard" featuring a sooty portrait of Bruce Willis, who right now is Shyamalan's favorite leading...
...Despite the decor, Shyamalan, 30, is not simply some starry-eyed fan. When he looks at these posters, you can be sure he sees his own reflection on the glass encasing them. His breakthrough film, "The Sixth Sense," which featured Willis in the lead, was about as big as Hollywood hits come: it garnered six Oscar nominations (including two for Shyamalan, for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay) and grossed more than $600 million at the box office worldwide, making it the ninth highest-grossing film ever. Shyamalan wants to build on that success, and he'll get his first...
...Native Americans after seeing it in a book about such cultures and finding himself drawn to their sense of spirituality. He had started making short films at 10 and eventually went on to study filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 1992, at 21, Shyamalan wrote, directed and starred in "Praying with Anger," a low-budget film about an American of Indian descent who goes to India. Five years later he made his first studio film, the comedy "Wide Awake." It was a commercial and critical disaster. Discouraged, Shyamalan found his writing got "darker...
...Shyamalan, 29, did not win an Oscar on March 26, but he has carved out another leading role for himself, as one of America's premier success symbols for 722,000 Indian immigrants and guest workers scattered across the country. And he is only one among many. Today South Asian immigrants are climbing the top rungs in just about every industry...