Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British film set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of an adolescent orphan, whose family had been killed in a religious pogrom that targeted Muslims in the slums of Mumbai, manages to become a contestant on an American look-alike television program: So you want to be a millionaire? As he deftly answers the questions and proceeds to becoming the millionaire, a suspicious television moderator convinces the corrupt and prejudiced police to force the youth to confess that he is committing a contrived scam - somehow he is obtaining the answers. The police are rough and go to the extreme of torturing the adolescent to confess his scam. Being as the young man is from the slums, he has no legal protection. Nevertheless, adversity has strengthened his will and he refuses to oblige his torturers. Finally, the police chief requests to know; well, if he isn't scamming, how does an impoverished and uneducated orphan from the worst slums of Mumbai know all the answers to difficult questions? From that question, the story unfolds.
After its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival and subsequent screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, [Slumdog Millionaire initially had a limited North American release on 12 November 2008 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, to critical acclaim and awards success. It later had a nationwide grand release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 and in the United States on 23 January 2009.
Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture and Best Director. Slumdog Millionaire is also subject of controversy concerning language use, its portrayals of Indians and Hinduism, and the welfare of its child actors.
In August 2008, the studio began searching for buyers for various productions, to relieve its overload of end-of-the-year films. Halfway through the month, Warner Bros. entered into a pact with Fox Searchlight Pictures to share distribution of the film, with Fox Searchlight buying 50% of Warner Bros.'s interest in the movie and handling U.S. distribution.
I think it’s the way Boyle has managed to position his work. He notched up nominations at the big league, and along the way, created a huge buzz for his content. He achieved great marketing mainly through poster advertisement. At the release of the movie every street corner was covered with a Slumdog Millionaire poster, there was no escape from knowing about it. Also, Boyle realized that there is a bigger audience and decided to dub his film in Hindi and Tamil. The film got unprecedented media coverage; and opened to packed houses across multiplexes in the country.
The Indian film Slumdog Millionaire appealed to Americans with its "rags to riches" story of a deprived youth from the slums of Mumbai, India, who used pluck, luck and an astonishing memory of incidents in his life to win 20 million rupees in a quiz program. The unusual coincidence of the film's arrival in U.S. theatres at the same time as the terrorist action in Mumbai provided an added kicker to the film's box office success. A fascination with the provocative news reports spilled over to a fascination with Mumbai. However, those interested in the attacks by Islamic extremists on mainly Hindus in Mumbai must have been surprised to witness a film that contains Hindu attacks on Muslims.
