JAPAN: Danny Boyle the director of 'Slumdog millionaire' says he is flattered by Oscar nominations
Record ID:
385059
JAPAN: Danny Boyle the director of 'Slumdog millionaire' says he is flattered by Oscar nominations
- Title: JAPAN: Danny Boyle the director of 'Slumdog millionaire' says he is flattered by Oscar nominations
- Date: 18th February 2009
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 18, 2009) (REUTERS) (*** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) DANNY BOYLE, DIRECTOR OF SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, WALKING IN FOR A NEWS CONFERENCE REPORTER LOOKING AT HANDOUT (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANNY BOYLE, DIRECTOR OF SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, SAYING "It's weird though, it changes your name. I used be called Danny Boyle, but now I'm called Oscar-Nominated Danny Boyle." REPORTER TAKING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANNY BOYLE, DIRECTOR OF SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, SAYING "A film like this really needs to be a success to be in the awards season. It's the time of the year, where the focus of the world's press is on films that might not normally have a, you know, that don't necessarily have a big star in them, or a set somewhere where this is set, which isn't usual. Like a third of this film is in Hindi, in America, which is very unusual for a film like this to succeed." MAN WEARING TURBAN IN AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANNY BOYLE, DIRECTOR OF SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, SAYING "It's very flattering as well. Full of kind of dreams and heart aches, because not everybody wins, but everybody wishes to win." BOYLE LISTENING TO QUESTIONS FROM AUDIENCE JOURNALISTS TAKING PICTURES OF BOYLE BOYLE EATING JAPANESE PORK CUTLET CURRY BOYLE FINISHING EATING AND AUDIENCE APPLAUDING BOYLE WALKING OFF STAGE
- Embargoed: 5th March 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Reuters ID: LVA8RWBAWVUVPE5327MW022CKWKU
- Story Text: Danny Boyle, director of "Slumdog Millionaire" said on Wednesday (February 18), the film's Oscar nominations is an one-of-a-kind experience.
"It's weird though, it changes your name. I used be called Danny Boyle, but now I'm called Oscar-Nominated Danny Boyle," said Boyle during a news conference held in Tokyo.
Boyle, who is visiting Japan to promote his film, talked to the Japanese media ahead of the Academy Awards, where the film has already clinched ten Oscar nominations.
"A film like this really needs to be a success to be in the awards season," Boyle, who made the acclaimed "Trainspotting" in 1996, told reporters.
"It's the time of the year, where the focus of the world's press is on films that might not normally have a, you know, that don't necessarily have a big star in them, or a set somewhere where this is set, which isn't usual. Like a third of this film is in Hindi, in America, which is very unusual for a film like this to succeed," he said.
Low-budget Indian drama "Slumdog Millionaire", the rags-to-riches tale of a Mumbai slum dweller, emerged as favorite to win the best picture Oscar after recently winning best film at Britain's BAFTA film awards and top prize at the 15th Screen Actors Guild awards in January.
The British film depicts the life of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who becomes a millionaire after winning a Hindi TV game show. It also triumphed at the Golden Globes last month with four honours including best drama.
"It's very flattering as well. Full of kind of dreams and heart aches, because not everybody wins, but everybody wishes to win," said Boyle.
But despite the film's success, dozens of residents of a Mumbai slum, where "Slumdog Millionaire" was partly shot, recently protested against the film, hurling insults and hitting pictures of its cast and crew with slippers.
The movie's international success has been tempered by objections in India to the name, which some slum dwellers find offensive, its depiction of the lives of impoverished Indians and the treatment of the cast.
About half of Mumbai's 17 million people are homeless, and many of those live on the streets or in slums that lack even basic facilities such as running water and toilets.
The unpaved alleys, open sewers and tiny shacks of a teeming Mumbai slum are faithfully reproduced in the film.
But some Indian newspapers and TV channels have criticized Boyle for romanticizing slums and peddling such grim realities as begging rackets, prostitution and crime as "Indian exotica" and that his film was "poverty porn."
Boyle has said he was trying to capture Mumbai's "lust for life".
He told Reuters the children in the film had been paid well and that the makers of the movie went to great lengths to make sure they would be well cared for after the film was forgotten.
A slum portrayed in the film is also at the center of a land controversy in Mumbai that has highlighted the challenges facing a booming India as it tries to modernize its cities.
Dharavi, where part of the film was shot, is the focus of an ambitious, but contentious, 150-billion rupee ($3 billion U.S. dollars) redevelopment plan to turn shanties near the heart of the Indian financial capital into upscale apartments and office towers.
Dharavi's residents, who would be relocated to tiny apartments under the redevelopment plan, are hoping that the popularity of the film will put the government under pressure to uphold their rights. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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