“Slumdog Millionaire” – The Film That Has Won Multiple Oscar Nominations
It is a revolution for the Indian Cinema – the “Bollywood” produced “Hollywood” film, Slumdog Millionaire has achieved 10 nominations for the 81st Oscar Awards, to be held on 22nd February this year. It is also a breakthrough that an Indian Music composer, A.R. Rahman, who has already bagged the prestigious Golden Globe Award of this year for his contributions in Slumdog Millionaire, has been nominated for more than one Oscar Award for the same film.
A.R. Rahman is a familiar face in the film world, as he has worked already in some British productions like “Elizabeth : The Golden Age” in 2007 and also composed the musical “Bombay Dreams” in 2002. All over India he is very popular, irrespective of language barriers.
Totally the 10 nominations made for the Oscar Awards include – Best Film; Best Director; Best Screen Play; Best Cinematography; Best Editing; Best Sound Composing; Best Sound Recording; as also Best Music direction etc. and it will lift A.R. Rahman to dizzy heights all over the world, if he wins the Oscar.
Interesting inside news about the film, which is scheduled for release in India today, has been on the rounds and here are some for your info:
Originally the producers Warner Independent, a Division of Warner Brothers, wanted to release CDs all over the world immediately after the film was finished in May 2008. But Fox Searchlite, the Indian film division of Fox Studio had other ideas, to release the film in theatres and picked it up from the producers.
It is always a successful theme for the celluloid – poor man getting riches overnight – since it is a dream by most of the people. Slumdog Millionaire revolves around exactly that theme. The Indian TV Game Show “Kaun Banega Crorepathi” hosted by the great Indian cinema idol Amithab Bachan as also “Who wants to be a Millionaire”, another popular TV Show in the European countries, were instrumental in selecting the bottom line of the story of Slumdog Millionaire.
The famous (rather infamous?) Mumbai slum Dharavi (the largest slum in whole Asia) was selected as the backdrop for shooting the opening scenes of chase in the film. The real slum boy of Mumbai, Azza, who has played the role of Salim, Jamal’s brother had his house bulldozed by the Municipal authorities in real times, when the shooting took place, and he was least bothered about this common occurrence in Mumbai.
The US producers have taken care of the three youngest children cast in the film – also from the slums of Mumbai and poverty-stricken – and have their schooling funded by a Trust, which will be theirs when they come up age of 16.
Director Danny Boyle was not interested to do the script “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” and agreed to do it only after he came to know that Simon Beaufoy has written the screenplay. Beaufoy, who adopted the novel “Q&A” by Vikas Swarup, made as many as three research trips to Mumbai slums to interview the slum children. He was very much impressed by the sense of huge amount of fun, chat, laughter and community sense of the slums’ inmates and wanted them to be shown in his screenplay as it is.
Foyle coaxed the producers to allow him to translate atleast 10% of the dialogues in Hindi, but when finished it was nearly one third of the dialogue of Slumdog Millionaire.
Anil Kapoor, who is playing Prem Kumar as the host of the film’s “Who wants to be a Millionaire” program, donated his earnings to a charitable Institution Plan India, Delhi looking after the child development activities, including spreading awareness of child trafficking, abuse, educating and rehabilitating deprived children.
Anil Kapoor is a popular Indian Hindi film actor having done more than 100 Bollywood movies along with counterparts Amithab Bachan, who plays as the matinee idol of young Jamal in the film and Sharukh Khan. Both the actors have hosted the Indian version of the popular game show “Kaun Bhanega Crorepathi”. Interestingly when the role of Prem Kumar in Slumdog was offered to Sharukh Khan, he declined it, thinking that the role is too negative.
According to Boyle, car makers Mercedes-Benz wanted removal of their logo where it is shown in connection with the slum scenes in the film, as they feared it will damage the image of the luxury car brand in such a poverty-stricken background.
Boyle comments about the location where the film’s two climatic scenes were shot – Chattrapathi Shivaji Terminus Railway Station, Mumbai (formerly Victoria Terminus). It is here that a gory terrorists’ attack took place gunning down more than 50 people in the passenger hall mercilessly on 26th November 2008. He says that one should never link up the film scenes, which are pure entertainment to show that love conquers everything, whereas the real incident is a condemnable tragedy.
Whatever it is – “Slumdog Millionaire” has already become the talking point by Indians everywhere and a debate has already started in online blog at Amithab Bachan’s site – pro and ante – praise about the plus points and criticism of showing India’s poverty.
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Comments
read review and the comments posted -
and all said and done -
the movie is mediocre and if u look at it without background brainwashing of all the glossy promos and glowing professional reviews there is nothing really special or different about it that deserved all those oscars
a r rehman makes great music – personally i feel that his other/earlier works esp Roja were the best – but thats not the issue – he deserves the award for his creativity -
apart from the quality or lack of it in the film -
just analyse who benefits if such a hollywood-ized indian-scene and story movie gets such huge exposure and limelight?
and do remember it is not a Indian movie -
its essentially made by a foreign chap and by a foreign studio and foreign technical staff foreign actors etc
not someone who would understand India per se
its a story set in India and told by a foreign chap
i wonder about his perspective (or rather the lack of it) on India
it reminds me of the few years in the 1990s where Indian girls suddenly started getting Miss Univ and Miss World type awards -
that was the period where max MNC branded cosmetics and healthcare products were launched here
the pagents provided the necessary exposure and foothold for these products in the huge Indian market
similarly now most hollywood studios have entered the indian market in 2008, esp on the marketing / distributor side.
the past 4-5 big films starring major indian actors have been flops translated as heavy losses for these players.
Indian film studios/technical people are not as good as the hollywood studios – as better cameras editing tech etc is available there.
Indian tech people cannot compete with the overseas tech people -
this movie has been used to set a benchmark for the technical expertise -
and i foresee that several Indian studios will now go over to the ‘foreign’ tech
which might translate into losses for the Indian technical jobs
second is the market – unless the china movie trade opens up India is the biggest market available
and on a personal note -
a director makes a movie as he ’sees’ the story – have no issues with that
(actually i loved the book so was interested in seeing the movie)
but if danny boyle ’sees’ India as what has been portrayed in the movie – i am really sorry for him and all those who think that it was a great portrayal
my India is NOT a trash heap
so was just analysing the movie as a event and what it could portend for the future of the Indian film industry
and if the beauty pagents are any indication i doubt any movie made India by an Indian chap using Indian technical staff actors etc would ever get an oscar
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