  Deepha Mehta (AP file photo)
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HOLLYWOOD -- When Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta strides up the red carpet at the Academy Awards on Sunday evening, she will be resplendent in a pure gold sari that has been in her family for nearly a century.
Mehta's grandmother got it on her wedding day; her mother received it next on her own wedding day; it was finally bestowed on the India-born Mehta when she married Canadian Paul Saltzman in 1973 (although they divorced a decade later).
Now it will be seen around the globe when the Torontonian attends the world's most prestigious film awards. Her drama Water is representing Canada in the best foreign-language-film category.
"It is made out of pure gold threads," Mehta told Sun Media about her sari. "Because it's old, it's all burnished. It's so beautiful and so subtle and very plain. It is very simple, but extremely elegant."
The sari was handmade in the early 1900s by a weaver in Varanasi, India, so it will be intriguing to see if the hip red-carpet fashionistas comment on the raven-haired, 57-year-old Mehta.
She will arrive with three other gorgeous, sari-clad women. Water co-stars Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas will be there along with Mehta's daughter Devyani Saltzman, who wrote an intimate book about her experience with her mother on the film.
"So we are going to be the sari brigade from Canada," Mehta said with a laugh. Mehta's producer-partner David Hamilton and Water's male lead John Abraham will be in black Nehru jackets.
Mehta, a romantic pessimist, says she does not expect to win the Oscar, even if she "absolutely" would like to. "But I think you have to be a realist. I think the reality is that, this year, the competition is fabulous. It's amazing. I think we're in really good company. Being a realist, I think the chances are dim.
"But I really do think this ride (since the nomination) has been so full of joy. I don't know how long it lasts but, suddenly, you are taken a little more seriously, especially in Los Angeles. But, more than anything else, the impact in India has been tremendous."
Water has an infamous history in India. Hindu extremists, who were angry with her planned depiction of the plight of widows in the 1938 period film, stormed her set in 2000 and forced her to stop shooting. They issued death threats. Water was filmed five years later in Sri Lanka. Now it will be released in India March 9, with censors backing off.
So will protestors, Mehta hopes.
"I think if people were thinking of protesting, and some of them were, then suddenly it won't be so kosher to protest against something that the world recognizes. So, for me, the difference really has been in India."
