Slumdog Millionaire

About the film

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director. It was loosely based on the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. Starring Dev Patel in his film debut as Jamal, and filmed in India, it narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai.

As a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, a Hindi Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jamal surprises everyone by answering every question correctly so far, winning ₹1 crore ($USD210,000, equivalent to around $330,000 in 2026), and he is one question away from winning the grand prize of ₹2 crore ($USD420,000, equivalent to around $660,000 in 2026). Accused of cheating, he recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he was able to answer each question.

Plot

In 1992, five-year-old Jamal Malik, a resident of the Juhu slum in Mumbai, obtains Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan's autograph after jumping into a cesspit; the crowds around Amitabh Bachchan are deterred by Jamal as he is covered head to toe in human feces. Jamal's elder brother Salim later sells the autograph. Their mother is killed during the Bombay riots. Having escaped the riots and taken shelter from the rain, the brothers meet Latika, a girl from their slum. Jamal suggests that she could be their "third musketeer", a reference to The Three Musketeers, a novel which the brothers learned about in school. The brothers refer to themselves as Athos and Porthos but cannot remember the third musketeer's name.

The trio are found by Maman—a gangster who trains street children to become beggars. After witnessing Maman blinding the children with hot oil to make them more effective beggars, Salim escapes with Jamal and Latika. The brothers board a moving train, but Latika cannot keep up. Salim grabs her hand but purposefully lets go in revenge for a prank Latika has pulled the night before, leaving her to be recaptured by Maman. For the next years, Salim and Jamal travel on top of trains, making a living by selling goods, pickpocketing, washing dishes, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika and discover that Maman is raising her to be a prostitute. The brothers rescue her, with Salim shooting Maman dead. Impressed by this, Javed—a rival crime lord, grants Salim a job. In their room, Salim orders Jamal to leave him alone with Latika, presumably to sexually assault her. When Jamal refuses, Salim draws a gun on him, and Latika persuades Jamal to leave.

In 2004, Jamal, now working as a chaiwala in a call centre, learns that Salim is a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's crime organisation. Jamal confronts Salim, who pleads for forgiveness. Jamal then sneaks into Javed's residence and reunites with Latika. Although he professes his love for her, she tells him to forget her. Despite the refusal, Jamal promises to wait for her every day at five o'clock at Victoria Terminus. Attempting to meet him there, Latika is captured by Javed's men, led by Salim. He scars her face while driving away. Jamal loses contact with Latika and in a final attempt to reach her, he becomes a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, knowing that she watches the show.

Production

Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. To hone the script, Beaufoy made three research trips to India and interviewed street children, finding himself impressed with their attitudes. The screenwriter said of his goal for the script: "I wanted to get (across) the sense of this huge amount of fun, laughter, chat, and sense of community that is in these slums. What you pick up on is this mass of energy."

By the summer of 2006, British production companies Celador Films and Film4 Productions invited director Danny Boyle to read the script of Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle hesitated, since he was not interested in making a film about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which was produced by Celador. Then Boyle learned that the screenwriter was Beaufoy, who had written The Full Monty (1997), one of the director's favourite British films, and decided to revisit the script. Boyle was impressed by how Beaufoy wove the multiple storylines from Swarup's book into one narrative, and the director decided to commit to the project. The film was projected to cost $15 million, so Celador sought a US film distributor to share costs. Warner Independent Pictures gave $5 million and got the rights to the film.

Gail Stevens came on board to oversee casting globally. Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well known for discovering new talent. Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US. The filmmakers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat. Originally appointed as one of the five casting directors in India, Loveleen Tandan has stated, "I suggested to Danny and Simon Beaufoy, the writer of Slumdog, that it was important to do some of it in Hindi to bring the film alive [...] They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogues which I, of course, instantly agreed to do. And as we drew closer to the shoot date, Danny asked me to step in as the co-director." Boyle then decided to translate nearly a third of the film's English dialogue into Hindi. The director fibbed to Warner Independent's president that he wanted 10% of the dialogue in Hindi, and she approved the change. Filming locations included shooting in Mumbai's megaslum and in shantytown parts of Juhu, so film-makers controlled the crowds by befriending onlookers. Filming began on 5 November 2007.

Key details