Saeed Jaffrey honoured at Oscars

Los Angeles, Feb 29 (IANS) Indian-born British actor Saeed Jaffrey, popular for movies like "Gandhi" and "Masoom", was honoured at the 88th Academy Awards ceremony here in the "In Memoriam" montage.

Saeed, who passed away in London in November last year and was posthumously named for the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award earlier this year, got a musical tribute by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters.

He was remembered at the awards ceremony, which was held at at the Dolby Theatre here on Sunday.

Saeed was included in the annual montage along with Wes Craven, Alan Rickman, James Horner, Omar Shariff, David Bowie, Leonard Nimoy and Christopher Lee.

Grohl put his rock music on pause to pay the musical tribute as he rendered The Beatles hit song "Blackbird" as the footage of the departed souls played in the background, creating an emotional moment.

Saeed was best known to the international audience for his roles in films like "Gandhi", "The Man Who Would Be King", "A Passage to India", aceThe Horsemen" and "The Wilby Conspiracy", among others.