MUMBAI: Academy award winning director Ang Lee has finally found an actor to portray the protagonist in his ambitious project Life of Pi.

The Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hulk, Brokeback Mountain director has zeroed in on 17-year old Suraj Sharma from Delhi who managed to stand out among 3000 others who auditioned for the role.

Sharma, it is said, may not have any experience in acting but the manner in which he emoted through his eyes won over Lee‘s heart and helped him pocket the role.

Life of Pi, based on the Canadian author Yann Martel‘s Booker Prize winning-novel, tells the story of a boy Piscine Molitor ‘Pi‘ Patel from Pondicherry who survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger. The film will be shot in India and Taiwan.

It is interesting to note that Sonu Sood is in talks with Lee to play the role of Pi‘s father.