Slumdog Millionaire - Success

A films success is typically measured in its box office numbers and the number of awards it has been nominated for and received. Slumdog Millionaire was produced on a budget of around $15 million and during ts run took in over $377 million making an astounding success at the box office, the film was also nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won 8 of them including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, it also won 7 BAFTAs including Best Film and 4 Golden Globes meaning that is was both a critical and commercial success, but there are many other ways to determine a films success.

Global reach is also another way to determine a films success, as this is a film set in India the opinions of the Indian audience would greatly factor into the idea of its success. Many Indian people expressed their dislike for the movie because of the negative stereotypes it reinforces, Director and Filmmaker Priyadarshan criticized the film by saying "the Westerners loved it. All the Indians hated it. The West loves to see us as a wasteland, filled with horror stories of exploitation and degradation. But is that all there is to our beautiful city of Mumbai?". It has also been criticized by Indian audiences for Jamal's unexplained use of near perfect British English throughout the film as although around a third of the film was in Hindi it was hard for Indian audiences to suspend disbelief and that a young boy from the slums could speak English that well "the transition from child actors who in real life are slum children to young actors who are, just as clearly, middle-class anglophones is so abrupt and inexplicable that it subverts the ‘realism’ of the brilliantly shot squalor in which their lives play out". A release dubbed in Hindi did better at the box office as the Indian people fet it was more realistic and believeable.

Another way to determine success is the careers of those involved after the films release as director Danny Boyle who is synonymous for smaller, riskier, indie type films went on to direct an unconventional but critically acclaimed hollywood movie 127 Hours which is a movie Boyle had been wanting to do for fours years, it can be suggested that without the success of Slumdog Millionaire it may never have been made. Boyle was also trusted to direct the 2012 London Olympics which may not have been possible without his win for Best Director proving him as someone up for the job.