Slumdog millionaire

Explore the factors which effected the production of Slumdog Millionaire

The idea for Slumdog Millionaire came about due to a novel which was written by an Indian woman  Vikas Swarup called Q&A. From there, screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy wrote the screen play from this novel however removed a few of the stories from the novel as well as changing the characters names, making it completely original and authentic. Director Danny Boyle became interested in this, although at first he was reluctant to read the script however after being encouraged to read it he then decided it would be a great project to direct.

Film 4, the production company, are highly recognized for their 'indie' films which is also why Warner’s Independent play a huge role in the production and distribution of this film as they are also know for their independent films. With this in mind, it was not remote that Slumdog Millionaire would be categorized in this category. The budget to producing this film was a small amount of $15 Million, far from what the film actually made after it was released. Despite the small budget the film was able to focus on more social issues which would have a bigger impact on their audience and did not need big Hollywood stars create this impact.

The casting director Loveleen Tandan faced a lot of difficulties when it came to finding the right cast to play the parts in this film and the process to deciding this was very hard as the film required three peoples in different life stages to play the part of the same main protagonist as he grew up. Therefore all three actors would have to be similar as the audience would have to be able to connect with all of them and believe that it is the same person they are watching as he grows up.

There were also other constraints in making Slumdog millionaire, one being the equipment. Originally, Danny Boyle used standard cameras for shooting however due to shooting on location they found slums to be too narrow and small which made it hard to move the camera and crew around. Danny Boyle in a documentary also said the standard cameras were 'Too static' for some scenes when shooting at certain angles. Therefore it was decided to use more modern, mobile cameras which could improve audience experience as well as making it easier to shoot shots such as the tracking shot.

Although a lot of the scenes were shot in a studio, one of the things Danny Boyle had wanted from the start was to shoot many of the scenes on location in Mumbai as this would create a sense of authenticity and realism to the film. However there were many constraints with shooting on location. As said previously the slums were very narrow making it difficult for crew members to move about despite that filming in these small areas created a sense of togetherness and social solidarity of the endian culture. Danny Boyle also referred to the location as being the see 'always the same but constantly changing’ as the locations used to change a lot. Another problem faced was the crowds when filming as often there were that many people it was hard to shoot a scene without getting a strand person in the shot.

Finally, the Director of this project Danny Boyle was said to have excellent relationships which the cast despite the difference in language however managed to guide and instruct the actors and crew efficiently when shooting each scene. This can be quite rare as a directors main focus is on the story and how it visual looks. However Danny Boyle's main aim was to keep spirits and energies high and says 'the momentum has to keep going in order to finish the film successfully' and it’s no argument that that is exactly what he did.