Slumdog Millionaire
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
A film by Danny Boyle
Anil Kapoor along with co-stars, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto and director Danny Boyle stepped onto the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square on Thursday 30th October to celebrate the UK premiere of Boyle’s award-winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, which took pride of place as the Closing Night film of The Times BFI London Film Festival.
Anil Kapoor, stars alongside young Brit-Asian actor Dev Patel (from Channel 4’s Skins) as the host of India's ‘‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’. Patel plays the lead as Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees.
Put through his paces by Kapoor, and at the penultimate question, Jamal is shockingly arrested on suspicion of cheating. He tells the police the incredible story of his life on the streets, and of the girl he loved and lost. But what is a kid with no interest in money doing on the show? And how is it he knows all the answers?
Kapoor said of his involvement in the film: “The way in which Anthony and Danny look at India… It’s just got that kind of feeling that the soil of India will be in there. You’ll be able to smell India in Slumdog Millionaire, which I feel none of the films that have been made by foreign filmmakers have really been able to capture before. And the kinds of places where Danny has shot this film… I don’t think even Indian films have been shot in those kind of locations.”
Directed by Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) and written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE releases in the UK on 9th January, having already received critical acclaim as well as winning the Audience Award at last month’s Toronto Film Festival.
On having his film invited to close the London Film Festival, Danny Boyle comments: “I am delighted that the film will receive its European premiere at the London Film Festival. I hope that Londoners will respond to this story about another great megatropolis - Mumbai, "the Maximum City".
Being his first feature film role, and growing up in Harrow in North West London, Patel was nervous about portraying a character supposedly born and bred in the slums of Mumbai. He felt enormous pressure to get the accent. Arriving some time before his scenes were scheduled to shoot, he immersed himself in the atmosphere of the locations to absorb the mannerisms and tone: “I’ve had to play emotional scenes, physical scenes and it’s really taken it out of me,” he says. “Danny really finds a way to get that right emotion out of you in a scene.”The project was initiated at Film4 who co-developed and co-financed the film with UK production company Celador Films. The film is produced by Celador’s Christian Colson. Film4 chief Tessa Ross and Celador Films Chairman Paul Smith act as Executive Producers. Francois Ivernel and Cameron McCracken of Pathé act as Co- Executive Producers.
Pathé International will handle the international sales.
