Interesting Facts About Slumdog Millionaire

Production and Budget

Slumdog, a film with no A-list stars, was almost never released in American theaters. Time Warner decided in 2008 to shut down its indy division, which owned the rights, and the movie would have been dumped directly to DVD if Fox Searchlight hadn’t decided to step in and release the $15 million film (£7 million). It ended up getting backed by british film producers Film4.

Inspiration

Q & A, the novel on which the film is based, is centered around a fictional game show; Slumdog, however, moved into the realm of the real Millionaire show once Celador, the owner of Millionaire, signed on as one of the film’s producers. The book was by Indian Ambassador Vikas Swarup.

Crew

Director: Danny Boyle

Main Actor: Dev Patel (first film)

Writing credit: Simon Beaufoy 

Producer: Christian Colson

Composer: A.R. Rahman

Problems While Filming

Following its release in India, the film faced criticism from various members of the public alleging that the film fuels Western stereotypes about poverty in India and that it peddles "poverty porn". Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, a representative of a slum-dwellers' welfare group, filed a defamation lawsuit against the film's music composer A.R. Rahman and actor Anil Kapoor, alleging that grim depiction of slum dwellers violated their human rights.