'Slumdog Millionare' child stars perform in HK

"Slumdog Millionare" child stars, from L to R, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail perform at a charity show of Hong Kong's TVB on June 6, 2009.

"Slumdog" brings Hollywood closer to Bollywood

The largely Indian cast and crew of "Slumdog Millionaire" who gleefully stormed the stage at the Academy Awards signaled a closer nexus between the world's biggest movie industries, with experts hoping for a happy ending.

The cast and crew of best picture nominee "Slumdog Millionaire" arrive at the 81st Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 22, 2009. Left to right are actors Freida Pinto, Irrfan Khan, writer Simon Beaufoy, actor Madhur Mittal, producer Christian Colson, actor Anil Kapoor, composer A.R. Rahman, actor Dev Patel.

India, home to the world's most prolific movie industry, has long tried to draw wider audiences, including by recently forging ventures with Hollywood studios looking to offset sluggish box office sales with new markets and cheaper production costs.

Now, the thumping success of "Slumdog" and a global financial crisis, which has pulled the plug on much Wall Street funding for movies, are bringing Hollywood and Bollywood closer together.

Like India's IT industry, Bollywood may now aggressively tout cheaper facilities for animation films and post-production. "Slumdog" also showcased India's prowess in music and sound mixing, with Oscars for A.R. Rahman and Resul Pookutty.

"India is an important domestic market for all foreign studios and also offers opportunities to cut costs," said Rajesh Jain, head of KPMG India's entertainment practice.

"The Oscars will raise the industry's visibility further."

Studios including Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, NBC Universal, Viacom and Warner Brothers have already put more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in India for stakes in local TV channels and ventures with Bollywood studios.

Their first efforts, including Disney's first Hindi animation flick, failed to set the Indian box-office on fire, but analysts say they will be encouraged by the success of "Slumdog," which became the eighth movie ever to win eight Academy Awards.

"The Oscar wins for 'Slumdog' only bodes well for the Hollywood-Bollywood connection," said Nelson Gayton at the UCLA Entertainment and Media Management Institute in Los Angeles.

"The critical and commercial success of the film speaks to global audiences for films of Indian content, especially if they do so well in the USA to begin with," he said.

It bodes well for Indian films too, he said, which while popular in the sub-continent have rarely met with global success.

"Slumdog" wins top producer awards

Producer Christian Colson poses with the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award Theatrical Motion Pictures for the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" at the 20th annual Producers Guild Awards at The Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles January 24, 2009.

"Slumdog" wins top producer awards

Cast members Indian actress Freida Pinto and British actor Dev Patel accept the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures for the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" at the 20th annual Producers Guild Awards at The Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles January 24, 2009.

Boyle says "Slumdog" not perfect

"Slumdog Millionaire" is not perfect, director Danny Boyle said on Wednesday, adding no filmmaker could capture the essence of a bustling city like Mumbai in a single project.

The cast and crew of the Oscar hopeful are in India in the run-up to the Indian premiere of the critically acclaimed film, a rags-to-riches story of a boy from a Mumbai slum competing on a TV gameshow.

"I have to admit, absolutely admit, that it's not perfect. I don't think any filmmaker can ever capture that city," the British director said at a press conference in New Delhi.

"It's an extraordinary city with all its extremes. You hope to capture bits of it if you can. That's what we tried to do."

"Slumdog Millionaire" came under fire from parts of the Indian media, who accused Boyle of romanticizing slums and peddling begging rackets, prostitution and crime as "Indian exotica."

The film has sparked a debate on whether such "poverty porn" reinforces Western stereotypes about the country, though Boyle said he was trying to capture Mumbai's "lust for life."

"Slumdog Millionaire" swept the Golden Globe awards this month, landing four honors including best drama, and earned 11 nominations at Britain's BAFTA awards.

Boyle, known for his unconventional story-telling in films like "Trainspotting," said it was his "bedrock" of realism that helped him make "Slumdog."

"We've lost the ability to tell extremes within conventional realistic stories with believable everyday characters," the 52-year-old filmmaker said, adding that is what he had tried to achieve in "Slumdog."

Boyle said he would love to return to Mumbai some day to direct a "really dark thriller."

"It's got that landscape really and it's not obviously architecture so much -- it's more its people."

"Slumdog Millionaire" opens in Indian cinemas on Friday, a day after this year's Oscar nominations are revealed.

But Boyle said he wasn't thinking of the Academy Awards just yet.

"We keep our fingers crossed. But even if we drop off the edge of a cliff tomorrow, that's fine," he said.

"We have done way beyond we could have ever imagined."