Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Adult Cast of "Slumdog" Speak After 8 Oscar Wins
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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Sunday, February 22, 2009
"Slumdog Millionaire" a favorite for the Oscars
LOS ANGELES – "Slumdog Millionaire" is arriving at the last stop in its rags-to-riches journey, steaming into the Academy Awards as the surefire favorite.
In keeping with its theme of bottomless optimism amid adversity, "Slumdog Millionaire" has led a charmed life, dodging a flirtation with straight-to-DVD, winning over critics and climbing toward $100 million hit status. The film has won top honors at all key earlier awards ceremonies, with one to go.
As Sunday dawned steel-pot gray in Los Angeles, where rain threatened to dampen the red carpet for the second year in a row and Hollywood's latest labor feud kicked up fresh news of another contract rejection, it seemed like nothing could drag down the year's most bummer-proof storyline.
Now its cast of unknowns — from new celebrities Dev Patel and Freida Pinto to kids plucked by director Danny Boyle from the slums of Mumbai, India — are all getting a trip to Hollywood's glitziest party.
For best picture, "Slumdog Millionaire" faces off against the romantic epic "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," the Richard Nixon saga "Frost/Nixon," the Harvey Milk tale "Milk" and the Holocaust-themed drama "The Reader."
Shot in India on a modest budget of $14 million, "Slumdog Millionaire" traces the life of a Mumbai orphan who overcomes poverty, betrayal, police torture and other hardships on his way to a reunion with his childhood love and success on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
The film nearly got lost in the shuffle as Warner Bros. folded its arthouse banner, Warner Independent, which had been slated to distribute "Slumdog Millionaire." It was rescued from the direct-to-video scrap heap when Fox Searchlight stepped in to release the film.
It's not all sunshine for "Slumdog Millionaire" going into the Oscars, though. A few raindrops fell on the red carpet at midmorning amid forecasts of a 30 percent chance of showers on Hollywood's big night. And hope of warm feelings between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was lost late Saturday night when SAG's board of directors rejected the producers' "last, best and final offer" for a new contract.
Freida's Ex-BoyFriend Blames Slumdog for their Breakup
Rohan Antao proposed to Pinto just days after she won the role of Latika in the Oscar-nominated film.
But he alleges movie bosses insisted Pinto keep the engagement under wraps - to emphasise her on-screen relationship with Patel's character Jamal.
Antao insists the close friendship between the two stars led to his split with Pinto last month (Jan09).
And now he is refusing to watch the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday (22Feb09), where the Mumbai-based film is nominated in several top categories.
He tells the News of the World, "The film bosses didn't want her to be engaged. It would affect the whole emphasis of the film, the love story. I had no say in it.
"I didn't go with her (on promotional tours). I had my own work to do and and we weren't supposed to be seen together. She told me it was a requirement, so I had to get on with it.
"I asked Freida to spend less time with Dev, but she refused. She was comfortable with him and we were talking over the phone less and less. I was ticked off with Dev - and her.
"She is infatuated with Dev. I don't know if they were having a sexual relationship but if I came face to face with him I would have things to say... Now everywhere I go I see them on billboards. I am devastated.
"I wish her success in her career, but I can't watch the Oscars, and I don't want to watch the film - it wrecked our love."
Friday, February 20, 2009
'Slumdog Millionaire' child cast to attend Oscars afterall
UPDATE:
PopEater has the photos of the two kids getting ready for their trip.
"Slumdog Millionaire" Kids Will Attend The Oscars
MUMBAI, India — The child stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" will take their first airplane trip when they attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The rags-to-riches story set and shot in the slums of Mumbai has been nominated for 10 Oscar awards, including best picture and best director.
All nine actors who play the three main characters in three stages of their lives will attend the Oscars, James Finn of Fox Searchlight Pictures said Friday. They include actors comfortable on the red carpet, like 18-year-old Dev Patel, who lives in London, and the glamorous Freida Pinto, 24, who has been praised in Vogue as a new style icon.
But also attending will be Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali, 9, both of whom were plucked from their homes in a Mumbai slum by director Danny Boyle and his team. The trip will be their first on an airplane and their first out of the country, relatives said.
"I'm very happy that I'm going to the Oscars," Rubina said in her home Friday, hours before she was to leave for the United States. "My friends are saying, 'your fate is so good.'"
"I'm not scared," said Rubina, who will be traveling with her uncle. "I'm going to go and take a lot of pictures and show them to people over here."
She planned to go shopping Friday afternoon for a dress to wear to the ceremony.
Rubina's uncle, Mohidden Khan, 40, laughed when he was asked what he would wear on the red carpet.
"I'm thinking maybe jeans and a T-shirt," he said.
Azharuddin's father, Mohammed Ismail, said he felt "very, very good" that his son could make the trip. Azharuddin will be traveling with his mother.
Finn said Fox Searchlight had been making visa and travel arrangements for the children and their relatives up until the last minute. Securing visas and passports in India can be a torturous process, especially for impoverished Indians who often don't have the necessary identification forms and documents.
"Everybody is really excited about it," said Finn, who added that the actors would be staying in a five-star hotel. "It's nice the whole gang will be together."
Monday, February 16, 2009
Nate Silver, predictor of 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, knows Oscar winners
After spending most of 2008 predicting the success of political actors—also called politicians—it’s only natural that Nate Silver (FiveThirtyEight.com) would turn his attention to the genuine article: the nominees in the major categories for the 81st Annual Academy Awards (Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. on ABC).
Best Director
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire.................................99.7%
Gus Van Sant, Milk...................0.1%
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button..................0.1%
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon......0.0%
Stephen Daldry, The Reader..0.0%
When the Academy wants to rebel, it does so with Best Director—this is where “edgy” films are rewarded when it can’t muster the courage to do so for Best Picture (Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, Steven Soderbergh for Traffic). That means Danny Boyle—who has won all the top awards for Slumdog Millionaire—is a shoo-in.Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire..............99.0%
Milk................................................1.0%Frost/Nixon...................................0.0%
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.......................0.0%
The Reader..................................0.0%Slumdog Millionaire won all three awards associated with Oscar success: the Directors Guild Award, the Golden Globe, and the bafta. It’s also a serious film, which the Academy favors. If there’s an upset (which would be a shocker), it will be Milk; guilt over Prop 8 and the Brokeback snub of ’06 could split the vote, with Boyle getting Director and Milk getting Picture.
'Slumdog' wins Best Contemporary Film at the Art Directors Guild Awards
LONDON: Oscar favourite "Slumdog Millionaire" continued its winning spree by fetching yet another prize ahead of the Academy Awards on February
22.
The extraordinary tale of a Mumbai slum-dweller winning against all odds was named the Best Contemporary Film at the Art Directors Guild Award at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
'Slumdog Millionaire' quiz answer may be wrong
The odds are in its favour at the Oscars to be announced on February 22, but Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire also has a raging controversy dogging it.
The song 'Darshan Do Ghanshyam Nath Mori' sung by a blind beggar in the film is credited to 15th century poet Surdas on the show, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. But, according to N S Nepali, the son of late poet-lyricist Gopal Singh Nepali, the original song was written by his father for the 1957 film Narsi Bhagat.
Nepali, who saw Slumdog at a theatre in Mumbai a few days ago, says he is distraught at the makers of Slumdog for "overlooking this fact". "Even in the options to the question 'Who wrote the song 'Darshan do", the film shows the names: Surdas, Tulsidas, Mirabai or Kabir," says Nepali. "They have not given my father's name as one of the options. I'm devastated."
Nepali says his father, who was one of the renowned poets of the 50s, died in 1964. "And it is great disservice to his name that he misses out on the credit for a song that he and music director Ravi made famous."
PHOTO: Freida Pinto dumps Mumbai boyfriend
SLUMDOG Millionaire beauty Freida Pinto has DITCHED her fiancé because of her new-found fame, we can exclusively reveal.
Stunning Freida, 24, told gutted Mumbai PR agent Rohan Antao she could not be with him and be a world-renowned actress at the same time.
She had kept Rohan—her sweetheart from university—a secret from the media during her meteoric rise to stardom.
He has gone to ground since she told him it was over but pals say he is “devastated” at losing the girl he thought he was marrying.
One close friend said: “It’s been a terrible time for him. One minute they were getting married, the next it was all over.”
The couple met at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, where Freida studied English and Rohan chemistry. The pal said: “They were really into each other.”
Rohan then became boss of a small PR firm, and last year proposed while Freida was filming the Oscar-nominated movie with British director Danny Boyle.
She posted photos of her engagement party on her Facebook web page but they have now been taken down.
For the last two months Freida has been promoting Slumdog around the UK and USA—putting a strain on her relationship. The pal said: “Freida realised she had been presented with an incredible opportunity but would not be able to make the most of it if she was tied down. She knew that she had to put acting first from now on.
“She and Rohan talked on the phone about finding a way to make it work—but her circumstances had changed so much they knew it wasn’t to be.”
'Slumdog' child stars not attending Oscars, asking for plane fare price
Mumbai child actors Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali will not be taken to the Oscars ceremony in Hollywood after their parents asked to be handed the plane fares instead, the producer of the movie Slumdog Millionaire has said.
"Now it's too late. The last thing they said to us was give us the money for the plane fares instead," producer Christian Colson told the Daily Telegraph.
Makers of the film, which has won 10 Oscar nominations and is the frontrunner for the best picture award, had decided to take the two children to the Oscars as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
But the parents of the eight-year-olds, who play child versions of the lead roles, objected. Azharuddin's father was in hospital and his mother would not let him travel with a chaperone.
Azharuddin's mother Shameem Ismail said she was told her son would receive money when he finishes school, and that they would be given a flat.
"But we need the money and help now. It is hard living like this," she told the paper.
"I am worried that after the Oscars are over, they will forget us and no one will be interested. Where we live now may be cleared any time and then we will have nowhere to live at all."
Azharuddin was Saturday unaware of his parents' conversations with the producers, telling the newspaper: "I am going to the Oscars. It is very exciting. I am practising my English for it," he said.
Azharuddin's father suffers from tuberculosis and Rubina's father has not worked since breaking a leg.
Shortly before the film was released, Azharuddin's family was evicted from its slum hut, and now live under a tarpaulin sheet at the edge of the slum.
Colson said the family was given money from a fund set up to deal with health and housing emergencies to build a new home.
"We sent the money, it vanished and the house never materialised," he said, adding the producers were currently trying to find a new home for the family.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
PHOTO: Freida and Dev Party till 3:30 in London's West End
Slumdog Millionaire stars Freida Pinto and Dev Patel looked a little worse for wear after enjoying a night on the town together.
The pair, who play lovers in Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches Indian tale, partied at Maddox nightclub in London’s West End until the early hours of the morning.
Pinto, dressed down in jeans and knee-high boots, was helped into a waiting car by a friend as they headed home at 3.30am.
Indian filmmaker missed chance to make 'Slumdog'
Bollywood filmmaker Sanjay Gupta (not the CNN medical correspondent) said he was on the brink of cracking a deal with Indian diplomat-author Vikas Swarup to make a film on his book Q & A.
Gupta, however, missed the deal as the rights of the book were already sold to British-Irish filmmaker Danny Boyle, who made the Oscar-nominated rags-to-riches drama Slumdog Millionaire on the same.
"I missed the film by a hair's breadth. I had read the book in 2005 and wanted to make a film on it and I wanted Homi Adjania to direct it,” he said in a release here.
“We had met Vikas Swarup. But, unfortunately the rights of the film were already sold to Danny Boyle," he added.
The Kaante director also revealed that he could not make the film because "we did not have the kind of support Fox Searchlight gave to Danny Boyle".
Gupta, however, admitted that the film would not have got the kind of international recognition it received if he had made the film.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Is 'Slumdog' Singer M.I.A a Terrorist Sympathizer?
To many Americans, Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Yet in Sri Lanka, where she spent her childhood years, M.I.A. remains virtually unknown. And some who do know her work say she is an apologist for the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the country’s long-running civil war.
M.I.A. — who has been nominated for an Oscar for the song she co-wrote for the hit film “Slumdog Millionaire” — has branded herself through music videos and interviews as the voice of the country’s Tamil minority. In the video for her song “Bird Flu,” for instance, children dance in front of what looks like the rebels’ logo: a roaring tiger.
“Frankly, she’s very lucky to get away with supporting, even indirectly, perhaps the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world,” said Suresh Jayawickrama, a songwriter based in Colombo.
Mr. Jayawickrama is from the country’s majority Sinhalese ethnic group, and his reaction is similar to that of many Sri Lankans who know M.I.A.’s music. But he also said that M.I.A. deserved credit for her artistry and the fame she had achieved. “She really should have a little more recognition in this country,” he said.
Meanwhile, M.I.A.’s claims that the government is carrying out a genocide against Tamils place her on the outer fringe of opinion about the conflict.
Although the government has brutalized and killed Tamil civilians over the past 25 years, human rights organizations spread the blame around, estimating that 70,000 people on both sides have been killed in the fighting.
“This is a conflict in which both sides have terrible human rights records,” said Yolanda Foster, a specialist on Sri Lanka with Amnesty International in London. “The Tamil Tigers have a long history of child recruitment, hostage taking, forcing civilians to the front lines. It’s complicated to assign blame.”
M.I.A. was born in Britain but moved to Sri Lanka when she was 6 months old so that her father, an engineer and a leader in the Tamil separatist movement, could help fight for an independent Tamil homeland. Her childhood took her across northern Sri Lanka, wracked by insurgency, to India and back to Britain, where her mother and siblings settled into a public housing project outside London. Her father remained in Sri Lanka. She now calls New York home.
“I kind of want to leave it ambiguous for my fans,” she said in the PBS interview, referring to the lyrics of her song “Paper Planes,” which was nominated for record of the year at the Grammys but did not win.
“Paper Planes,” which compares international drug dealing with selling records, drew a reaction from DeLon, a Sinhalese rapper based in Los Angeles, who made a video remix in which he interspersed images of people being blown up by Tamil Tiger bombs and subtitles about M.I.A. being a terrorist.
M.I.A. responded that she did not support terrorism.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
'Slumdog' sweeps British BAFTA awards
LONDON (Reuters) - Low-budget Indian drama "Slumdog Millionaire" swept the BAFTA film awards Sunday winning best film, director and five other categories, giving it another boost ahead of the Oscars later this month.
Slumdog Millionaire, a British picture about a young man from the slums of Mumbai who seeks to rise from rags to riches by winning a Hindi TV game show, triumphed at the Golden Globes last month with four honors including best drama.
Slumdog director Danny Boyle gave a restrained acceptance speech, but earlier defended his film on the red carpet against criticism in India to the movie's name, which some slum dwellers find offensive, its depiction of the lives of impoverished Indians and the treatment of the cast.
He told Reuters the children in the film had been paid well and that the makers of the movie went to great lengths to make sure they would be well cared for after the film was forgotten.
"We also put in place an educational plan for the children which we are sticking to and we will be there for them long after the fuss has died down," Boyle said ahead of the awards.
VIDEO: Danny Boyle at the BAFTAs
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Freida Pinto thanks city at Toronto Film Festival for early praise
TORONTO - Freida Pinto was thrilled Friday to be back in the city where her acclaimed movie "Slumdog Millionaire" first took flight, noting audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival were among the first to praise the rags-to-riches saga.
"I'm very excited to be here," the Mumbai-raised model-turned-actress, who made her film debut as the love interest in the drama that's been nominated for 10 Oscars, said at a gala for the South Asian lifestyles magazine Anokhi.
"In a strange way it's like my little gift back to the city because this is where it all started. This is where we had a first fan following, where we had the first standing ovation given to us by the press," said Pinto, 24, referring to the People's Choice Award the film won at the Toronto festival last September.
"I think in a strange way if this city hadn't started it all for us, it could have been a bit more difficult."
Thursday, February 5, 2009
'Slumdog' wins three awards at London Film Critics' Circle Awards
Danny Boyle scooped British Director of the Year for the film, which also won British Film of the Year and Screenwriter of the Year for Simon Beaufoy.
The London Critics' Circle Awards are judged by more than 100 newspaper and magazine film critics, and are held to raise money for the NSPCC.
Here's video from the awards, with Dev Patel responding.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire: The Reality Series?
Slumdog Millionaire could be looking to share the wealth.
The producers of the recent U.K.-U.S. transplant Secret Millionaire are looking to capitalize on the Oscar hopeful's international success with Secret Slumdog Millionaire, a spinoff reality series, according to British media reports.
In the American version of the show, which premiered on Fox in December, quantifiably rich people go undercover in economically deprived neighborhoods, get acquainted with members of the community and and ultimately hand out $100,000 at the end of each episode.
'Slumdog' not faring very well in India due to piracy, title
For all the attention in Hollywood, Slumdog Millionaire has failed to set the box office alight in India where it is set, with piracy, anger over its portrayal of poverty and its controversial title taking a toll.
The Oscar-nominated film about the life of a street boy who wins a fortune on a quiz show appealed to multiplex audiences with its portrayal of hope amid poverty but left viewers in small towns unimpressed.
A debate over the film's portrayal of India, where millions still live in the squalor depicted in Slumdog Millionaire," hasn't helped either.
"The film was slow in picking up but by Monday was seeing 65-75 percent occupancy in multiplexes," said trade analyst Komal Nahta.
"From Tuesday the collections have slowed again."
Slumdog, shot largely in the slums of Mumbai, received mixed reviews, with some panning it for reinforcing Western stereotypes about India.
Police in the eastern state of Bihar tightened security after slum dwellers objecting to the word "dog" attacked a cinema hall screening Slumdog Millionaire in its main city.
In small towns and semi-urban areas, the film is not doing well despite the huge publicity and a dubbed Hindi version.
"There was a problem with the title itself. Slumdog is not a familiar word for majority Indians," Nahta said.
Another trade analyst, Amod Mehra, said the film had also been hit by the lack of a recognisable Bollywood face. Actor Anil Kapoor, who plays the gameshow host, is cast in a negative role.
"The film ... is not ideally suited for Indian sentiment," Mehra said.
Fox Star Studios, which released the film in India, said it grossed 135 million rupees (NZ$5.4 million) over the weekend. It said Slumdog had been hit by piracy.
"I have to admit that the film was affected by piracy. A lot of people had already watched it," Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios, said.
But Singh said the film, playing in 350 screens across India, could benefit from word-of-mouth publicity.
Some cinema owners were not so hopeful.
"To hear slum boys speaking perfect English doesn't seem right but when they are speaking in Hindi, the film seems much more believable," said Shunali Shroff of Fame Cinemas, a movie theatre chain across India.
"Everything said and done, this is a niche film and we don't expect it to do well in smaller non-urban centres."
"Slumdog Crorepati," the Hindi-language version of the film, did better in India than the original English version and Fox Star Studios said more prints in Hindi would be released.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Quizmaster Anil Kapoor: 'Slumdog' is the story of my life...
Versatile Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, who played quizmaster in Danny Boyle's Oscar-nominated rags-to-riches story Slumdog Millionaire, says he sees a reflection of his own life in the film.
“'Slumdog…' is like my story. I also started from scratch - a rags to riches story. I started in Chembur (a Mumbai suburb) and slowly climbed up. God has been kind in that way,” Anil said on CNN's show “My City My Life”.
Stay tuned for the full interview, as we'll be hosting it on this blog very soon.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Freida's start in TV went bust because of her bust
Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto, has revealed that she missed out on a career as a TV presenter in India because her twin assets weren’t big enough!
At the beginning of her career, the 25-year-old leggy beauty whose film has now gone on to be nominated at the Oscars and which also lifted the 66th Golden Globes Award, wanted to try her hand at TV but was told she was too skinny. The actress told a US magazine, “We have the voluptuous, full-figured woman thing. People say I need to get a boob job, but I’m just comfortable the way I am.”
Dev Patel to be in M. Night Shyamalan's next film
The British teenage star of Oscar-tipped "Slumdog Millionaire," Dev Patel, is to join the cast of the next project by Hollywood director M. Night Shyamalan, the film industry press said Monday.
Patel, 18, will take a part in "The Last Airbender," an adaptation of a sci-fiction animated television series about a clash between four nations which each control one of the elements, fire, water, earth and air.
Filming on the project will start in March in Greenland, Variety magazine said, adding the film would be distributed by Paramount studios.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Danny Boyle wins the top Directors Guild of America (DGA) honor
LOS ANGELES – "Slumdog Millionaire" continued its rags-to-riches march through Hollywood's awards season as its filmmaker, Danny Boyle, won the top honor Saturday from the Directors Guild of America.
The win puts Boyle on the inside track for the same prize at the Academy Awards on Feb. 22, since the guild recipient almost always goes on to win the directing Oscar.
While "Slumdog Millionaire" started as an underdog that nearly went straight to DVD, it has emerged as the Oscar favorite. Audiences have embraced Boyle's tale of a poor boy rising to fame and fortune from the streets of Mumbai, and the film triumphed at the Golden Globes and Producers Guild of America Awards, while taking the prize for best ensemble cast from the Screen Actors Guild.