![]() ![]() Amitabh Bachchan had far more star power in India than Regis Philbin did in America and a crore (10,000,000 Rupees) is a lot more money relative to the Indian economy than a million dollars is in America. Diners stopped eating, interrupted conversations, and stared at the screens as the contestants struggled to answer questions. Indeed, as my wife and I ate dinner in a New Delhi restaurant, the show was broadcast to customers from four walls of TVs. I was in India in 2001 during the program’s first run, when film icon Amitabh Bachchan sat in the host’s chair. In an odd bit of related trivia, Mercedes Benz requested that its logo be removed from shots that take place in the slums, lest audiences draw an unsavory association.Īt one level the movie is, as noted above, an heroic “rags to riches“ narrative-a feel-good tale about a street kid (a “slum-dog”), who manages to become a contestant on the wildly popular television show, Kaun Banega Crorepati ( Who Wants to be a Millionaire?). ![]() Some Hindus have complained that the film depicts Hindus as thugs. Some celebrate the film as a long-overdue recognition of Indian cinema, while others found that the attention to Mumbai’s slums and underworld merely reinscribes a cartoonish representation of India as a land of poverty and corruption. ![]() European and American audiences have embraced it, though Indian viewers-in India and abroad-have had a more ambivalent response. Made on a budget of a million and a half dollars, it has grossed Fox Searchlight more than a hundred and thirty million, is nominated for 10 Oscars (including Best Picture) and already boasts 60 awards from various academies and guilds. ![]() The British-made Slumdog Millionaire is a film executive’s dream. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |