Slumdog Millionaire - Production

Explore the factors which affected the production of Slumdog Millionaire


The film Slumdog Millionaire is based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, which is comprised of 12 short stories. This was the first problem encountered by screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who took up the task of taking the novel from book to screen. Beaufoy had to weave the 12 short stories into one feature length narrative. In order to add realism to the script, Beaufoy made several trips to India before he put pen to paper.

The next stumbling block after the script was perfected was the director; Danny Boyle was reluctant to make a film based on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and was about to turn the film down, until he read Beaufoy’s script. Beaufoy wrote the hugely successful film The Full Monty, which Boyle was a fan of. Upon reading the script, Boyle was sold on the film.

Co-director Lovleen Tandan advised Boyle that some of the film’s dialogue should be in Hindi; something Boyle agreed on, but the film’s distributors were unsure about. Boyle agreed with Tandan to translate around a third of the film’s dialogue to Hindi, but told distributors that he was only translating 10% in order to get the green light.

The film company Film 4, and in particular Tessa Ross, secured the rights to the novel Q&A before contacting Beaufoy to write the film. Film 4 was one of three companies who worked on the production of the film, alongside Celador films and Pathe Pictures International.

As with most Film 4 productions, there was a relatively low budget of $15,000,000. The low budget meant that the film would rely on Boyle’s ability as a director and Beaufoy’s script in order to tell a compelling story.

Initially, Boyle was filming using classic film cameras that gave static, more ‘old-school’ shots. However, these cameras were not easily manoeuvrable and Boyle wanted the audience to feel part of the environment, so it was key that the cameras were easy to manoeuvre. Thus, the decision was made to change to more modern digital cameras.

It was key to the film that it was shot on location, despite the difficulties this brought. Crowds would swarm upon street scenes, which made many shots unusable as people were looking at the camera, and scenes at the train stations were dangerous due to the inability to halt a train schedule, meaning the trains were always moving,

Boyle commented that filming in Mumbai was “like the sea; always the same but constantly changing”, and recounted a story where a room they had filmed in around a week before had suddenly had an extra wall built in; showing the difficulties that filming in a bustling community posed.

Despite the difficult conditions, Boyle says that the passion of the cast and crew pushed the filming along and allowed them to complete it to a high standard. Boyle was particularly passionate, working long hours, and always energetic. His hands on approach to directing meant that every actor in the film, from the stars to the extras in the slums, was treated the same and advised with everything by Boyle.

Casting was hugely important to the film, with Gail Stevens in charge of global casting. Dev Patel was the only main non-Indian cast member, and got the role as Boyle’s daughter was a fan of Skins, a show which Patel was best known for. The other main role in the film went to Freida Pinto, who was actually a model, not an actress, but those casting the film thought she was perfect for the role.

The natural choice for the quiz show host was the host of India’s equivalent to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Shakrukh Kahn, but he turned down the role as he didn’t want people to think his show was fraudulent. Instead, the role went to well-known Indian star Anil Kapoor; a big acquisition for the film.

Finally, to add realism all the people in the slums were real ‘slumdogs’ (a phrase coined by Beaufoy) and will be paid upon their 18th birthday, meaning they would not ‘want for anything’ after their role in the film.