How The Oscars Remembered Bollywood Legends Sridevi & Shashi Kapoor

India lost two of its most beloved and gifted actors this year – Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi. Their deaths sent shockwaves across the country, and people all over the nation mourned the loss of the veteran actors who gave us some of the best performances in Indian cinema.

But it wasn’t just the Bollywood industry that paid tribute to the legendary actors. The Academy Awards, which was held in Hollywood, Los Angeles early this morning, honoured them in the ‘In Memoriam’ segment that pays tribute to cinema’s recently deceased.

The 90th Academy Award ceremony, hosted by popular American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. This year, the song for the segment was ‘Room At The Top’ by the late Tom Petty, performed by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. It paid homage to stars Sridevi and Shashi Kapoor in a teary-eyed moment for many Indian viewers watching from around the globe.

Kapoor is best remembered by English-speaking audiences in Merchant Ivory films such as The Householder (1963), Shakespeare Wallah (1965) and Heat and Dust (1983). However, the actor leaves behind a rich legacy and was part of the most successful Bollywood films of his time.

Sridevi worked in over 300 films in a career spanning over 45 years. Her filmography includes films done in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam – with her most beloved performances being in movies like Chandni, Chalbaaz, Sadma, Khuda Gawah, and her comeback movie English Vinglish.

Several people spoke in favour of the solemn acknowledgement that the Oscars gave to both the actors, and the Twitter-verse was abuzz with reactions.

The other cinematic icons who were mentioned in the ‘In Memoriam’ montage included Robert Osborne, Jonathan Demme, John Heard, Walter Lassally, Harry Dean Stanton, Glenne Headly, Jerry Lewis, Roger Moore and Sam Shepard.