Slumdog Millionaire created history today when it bagged an incredible ten Oscar nominations. With this, Slumdog Millionaire became the first Indian movie to get multiple nominations for the hugely coveted awards. There is, understandably, huge euphoria in India over this incredible feat, and the film itself has raised the expectations of the Indian movie buffs (watch the trailer at the end of this page).

Since the film won the prestigious Golden Globe Awards a few days back, a few nominations for the popular Oscar awards were expected as par for the course. It has been almost a tradition that films which have done well at the Golden Globe awards have done well at the Oscars also. And when Slumdog Millionaire won the Golden Globe in four different categories, the expectations were understandably raised. The film went on to win the Golden Globe awards in the categories of the best Director (Danny Boyle), best screenplay (Simon Beauhof), beat drama, and of course, the best original score (the song ‘Jai Ho’ composed by the inimitable A. R. Rahman).

But Slumdog Millionaire has beaten even the most optimistic expectations of the Indian filmdom, and has succeeded in bagging nominations in ten different categories. It has been nominated for the prestigious categories of the best film and the best director. And don’t forget A.R. Rahman! He has again secured a nomination (in fact, three nominations) for the category of the best original score! Everyone in India seems to be elated at this enormous achievement, and everyone is praying fervently that the film is able to win in as many categories as possible. And going by the tradition (remember, the Golden Globe awards!) and the sheer number of nominations, it is well within the realm of possibility!

In the past, various movies from India have been nominated for the Oscars, but without much success. The Indian story at the Oscars has been limited to individual achievers. The great director, Satyajit Ray won the Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1991. Bhanu Athaiya, the respected costume designer won the award for the 1982 movie, Gandhi.

Though the Indian Film industry is an obviously huge one (in fact, it is the largest in terms of the total number of films made), it never had much success at the Oscars. It managed to receive the occasional nominations in the ‘Foreign Language’ category. It was always felt that the Oscar is the one crucial feather that was missing in the hat. Though Indian films have been doing well at various film festivals and gathered a lot of critical acclaim, somehow the Oscars have always eluded them. In the recent past, the Indian Film industry has instituted its own awards in the shape of the IFFA. “The Oscars award is anyway given by the American Motion Pictures Association; obviously they will be biased towards the Hollywood. Why should we attach any value to it, and why should we need a seal of approval from the Hollywood”? -- This was the argument that was presented around.

Yet, the fact remains that the Academy Awards are still the most prestigious around. In addition to the obvious prestige value, it also adds enormous monetary value to the films. Hectic marketing and intense lobbying is also done for the nominations. If Slumdog Millionaire manages to win even in one category, or better still, in a few categories, this is going to add tremendously to the already big success of the film.

The film Slumdog Millionaire is based on a novel curiously named “Q&A”. The novel has been written by Vikas Swarup, who is, incidentally, the Indian Deputy High Commissioner in South Africa! The story revolves around the fortunes of an 18 year old slum dweller, who goes on to win a huge sum of Rupees 20 million (approx US $ 400,000) in the show “Kaun Banega Crorepati?(The Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?). The film traces his life and times in the slum of Dharaavi in Mumbai, which has the dubious distinction of being the biggest slum in Asia. The part has been played by Dev Patel, a British actor of Indian origin. The film also boasts of such leading Indian actors as Anil Kapoor (who plays the quizmaster) and Irrfaan Khan.

Slumdog Millionaire, which was made on a rather modest budget of US $ 10 million has been generating great buzz from the day it was released (12^th November, 2008). The film has garnered rave reviews on the international film festivals such as the Toronto Film festival and the Telluride film festival. One great boost came from the Time magazine, which ranked the film Slumdog Millionaire at the 7^th place in the list of Top 10 releases of 2008. Then, the terrorist attacks of 26^th November happened, and the world focus firmly shifted to Mumbai. The way Mumbai handled the attack, and then sprang back to life found a brilliant reflection in the theme of the movie.

To put things in their proper perspective, Slumdog Millionaire has also garnered its fair share of criticism! A leading English newspaper has described the movie as “poverty porn”. One of the most influential film stars of India, Amitabh Bachchan has reportedly criticized the movie for its portrayal of the poverty and underbelly of urban India. The other day I was watching news on TV, and there was this clip about a person who has filed a lawsuit against the movie. He was apparently unhappy with the word “Slumdog” itself, implying that this amounted to calling the poor slum dwellers as dogs!

Well, what more can one say! Let us hope and pray that Slumdog Millionaire indeed does well at the Academy Awards. It will be the triumph of hope and the victory of the underdog, the two central themes of Slumdog Millionaire. Please join me in wishing all the best to the crew and actors of the movie! Jai Ho!