Director Danny Boyle told this paper last July that Oscar favourite Slumdog Millionaire was "a kid's film". So it's only fitting that the film's producers took the real stars of the film to the Oscars, no? For this and lesser-known facts about the film mostly shot in Mumbai , read on...
Director Danny Boyle told this paper last July that Oscar favourite Slumdog Millionaire was "a kid's film". So it's only fitting that the film's producers took the real stars of the film to the Oscars, no?u00a0 For this and lesser-known facts about the film mostly shot in Mumbai , read on...
The song Jai Ho was originally made for Subhash Ghai's Yuvvraaj. But the producer Ghai did not find it fitting in the movie, so he let the song be used for Slumdog Millionaire.
The pile of 'excreta' that Jamal jumps into, was made from a combination of peanut butter and chocolate.
A leading luxury car owner asked that its logos be removed in slum scenes. The company, according to Danny Boyle, did not want to be associated with the poverty-stricken area, fearing that it might taint its image.
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Danny Boyle placed the money to be paid to the three lead child actors in a trust that is to be released to them upon their completion of grade school at 16 years of age. The production company has set up for an auto-rickshaw driver to take the kids to school everyday until they are 16 years old.
Danny Boyle met Shah Rukh Khan a couple of times for the role of the quizmaster (played by Anil Kapoor) but things didn't work out.u00a0
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The Slumdog Millionaire director felt wonderful about getting Anil Kapoor on board because "he's an extraordinary actor who slightly belongs to Amitabh's (who presented the Indian version of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire show originally) generation and is still in SRK's world. So he has a foot in both worlds.
He's had such a long career. But the thing I found about him is that he's a bold and brave actor. It's very tough pretending to be presenting a show. It's actually a very difficult thing to do. You need a very good actor to do it."
Shruti Seth, who features in a miniscule role, had auditioned for the role of Latika, played by Freida Pinto.
Casting director Loveleen Tandon was to wed TV actor-model Gaurav Chanana. The wedding was cancelled at the last minute just before the pheras in the mandap.
When Danny Boyle saw Freida Pinto's audition tapes among the numerous others, he knew that he had found his Latika.
It is the second Danny Boyle film to feature a protagonist diving into a toilet, after Trainspotting (1996).
A R Rahman took just 20 days to compose the entire soundtrack.
The film was originally intended to receive a PG-13 rating. In the end, it received an R rating because of its intense tone. With no time or money for appeals, the film was released with its given rating.
Reference spotting
There's a very famous scene in Danny Boyle's earlier film Trainspotting (1996). The hero goes down the toilet in one scene. There's a public loo scene in Slumdog Millionaire as well with Aayush Mahesh Khedekar (the youngest Jamal) who jumps into piles of human excreta in his excitement to meet Amitabh Bachchan who has arrived for a shooting near their slum.
In the opening chase scene where Jamal and Salim jump down from a building to the ground is an reference to Danny Boyle's Trainspotting, in which the main character Renton jumps down into the frame at a drug dealers to eventually overdose on heroin.
In the scene where the adult Salim's phone rings soon after the adult Jamal finds him, the ringtone is part of the theme music from A R Rahman's work in Swades: We, the People (2004).u00a0
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When Salim goes to Javed's den to announce that he has killed Maman, the movie playing in the theatre nearby is the Sunil Shetty starrer Maseeha (2002). Mahesh Manjrekar, who plays Javed, made his acting debut in Kaante (2002), which was released exactly a week after Maseeha.
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