With eight Oscars, 'Slumdog Millionaire' sweeps Academy awards

Los Angeles, Feb 23 (IANS) It's "Slumdog Millionaire" all the way. After shining at the Golden Globes and BAFTA, the Mumbai-based film swept the 81st Academy awards winning eight Oscars, making the same fairytale journey that its hero had done in the movie.

Directed by Briton Danny Boyle, based on Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A", the film had received 10 Oscar nominations, including three for Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman and one for Resul Pookutty for sound mixing.

The film managed to rake in over $100 million from collections across the globe, thougn in India it has grossed only Rs.215 million so far.

Set and filmed in Mumbai, "Slumdog..." narrates the story of an 18-year-old tea boy Jamal Malik, who appears on a quiz show "Kaun Banega Crorepati", the Indian version of British reality show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and ends up being a winner, arousing suspicion from the show host as well as the law enforcement officials.

The film starred British-born Indian actor Dev Patel, Freida Pinto besides well-known Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan apart from others. The screenplay has been written by British writer Simon Beaufoy and co-directed by India-based Loveleen Tandon, who was also the casting director for the film.

List of Oscars won by "Slumdog Millionaire":

1. Best Picture

2. Best director - Danny Boyle

3. Best original song- A.R. Rahman and Gulzar

4. Best original score - A.R. Rahman

5. Best adapted screenplay - Simon Beaufoy

6. Best cinematography - Anthony Dod Mantle

7. Best sound mixing - Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty

8. Best editing - Chris Dickens

Earlier, "Slumdog Millionaire" had created ripples across the international film industry by winning seven BAFTA and four Golden Globe awards.

The film won seven BAFTAs for best film, best director, best original music score, best cinematography, best editing, best sound and best adapted screenplay.

At Golden Globes it bagged awards for best original music score, best motion picture-drama, best director and best writer.

At the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, the film bagged five trophies - best composer, best picture, best director, best writer and best young actor/actress for Dev Patel.

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