'Slumdog' not faring very well in India due to piracy, title

India kicks Slumdog Millionaire to the kerb - Entertainment news, gossip & music, movie & book reviews on Stuff.co.nz

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.

Slumdog Millionaire

'Slumdog' child stars underpaid, say parents

Poor parents of 'Slumdog millionaire' stars say children were exploited - Telegraph

Their
roles in Slumdog Millionaire have won them international acclaim and
seen them rub shoulders with the film’s glamorous stars and its British
director.

The film’s British director, Danny Boyle, has spoken of how he set up trust
funds for Rubina and Azharuddin and paid for their education. But it has
emerged that the children, who played Latika and Salim in the early scenes
of the film, were paid less than many Indian domestic servants.

Rubina was paid £500 for a year’s work while Azharuddin received £1,700,
according to the children's parents.

Movie houses ransacked in Eastern India as protesters decry 'Slumdog' title

Don't call us dogs, say Slumdog protesters in cinema rampage - Times Online

Armed police guarded cinemas in eastern India today after slum dwellers
ransacked a picture house showing Slumdog Millionaire because they
didn't like the use of the word "dog" in the title.

Several hundred people rampaged through the cinema in Patna, capital of the
eastern state of Bihar, on Monday and tore down posters advertising the
film. They said the title was humiliating and vowed to continue their
protests until it was changed.

The protest was organised by Tateshwar Vishwakarma, a social activist who
filed a lawsuit over the title last week against four Indians involved in
its production - a lead actor, the music director and two others.

"Referring to people living in slums as dogs is a violation of human
rights," said Mr Vishwakarma, who works for a group promoting the
rights of slum dwellers. We will burn Danny Boyle [the film's British
director] effigies in 56 slums here."

The case will be heard in a Patna court on February 5, according to police.

Kishori Das, another activist, said: "We are in touch with like-minded
organisations across India to take the issue on a large scale."

Social, political and religious activists in India often organise violent
protests over films to try to win publicity for their cause.

Slumdog Millionaire

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India claims 'Slumdog Millionaire' as its own

AFP: 'Slumdog Millionaire' director coy about Oscar success

MUMBAI (AFP) — "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle said Tuesday he is refusing to contemplate Oscar success, despite a string of accolades, as he returned to Mumbai for the film's Indian premiere.

"The most important thing for us this week is absolutely the opening here. Big time. That's serious," he told a news conference in the city alongside the hit movie's cast.

The rags-to-riches love story about a Mumbai slum dweller has been tipped for Academy Awards success after scooping four US Golden Globes earlier this month, including a best director award for Boyle.

The low-budget movie, made with virtual unknowns in the lead roles, has taken 40 million dollars at the US box office and more than six million pounds (8.4 million dollars) in Britain, its producer Christian Colson said.

It premieres in Mumbai Thursday and Indian audiences get the chance to see the film from Friday, both in the original English and in Hindi as "Slumdog Crorepati".

Boyle, whose credits include "Shallow Grave", "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later", said he felt "incredibly blessed" by how the film has been received across the world, including the host of awards it has won.

"You can't expect anything really. You should always expect to get knocked down by a bus tomorrow morning, which is the only healthy thing to feel about success. It could all end at a moment's notice," he added.

"We have just been very fortunate to be where we are and... I never thought we would be here."

India has claimed "Slumdog Millionaire" as its own after the film's Golden Globes success and is eagerly awaiting next month's Oscars, despite it being directed, written and produced by a group of Britons and a British studio.

The cast, co-director Loveleen Tandan, acclaimed music director A.R. Rahman and the Vikas Swarup's novel "Q and A" on which the film is based are all Indian, as is the location -- Mumbai's sprawling Dharavi shantytown.

There is also a part-Hindi dialogue, Bollywood singing and dancing and some of the Indian film industry's biggest stars, Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan.

"There's probably nowhere more important than releasing the film in Mumbai and this extraordinary city," Boyle told reporters.

But he brushed aside apparent criticism of the film's subject matter from Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who wrote on his personal website recently that dire poverty exists in every culture, not just in India.

The comments were interpreted by the Indian media as a slight on Western directors and their perceptions of the country, although Bachchan has denied he was being critical of Boyle's success.

Boyle said he and screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy wanted to include "as much of the city as possible that we saw and found. And there are some tough things and there are some extraordinary things", he said.

He accepted that his vision of India's "Maximum City" was not perfect but he hoped audiences would recognise the "breathtaking resilience" and lust for life of the Mumbaikars depicted in the film, despite their circumstances.

"Everybody has the privilege of saying whatever they want about it (the film). I think it's part of my job to accept criticism," he added.

Slumdog Millionaire