Thursday 3 April 2014

8. Slumgdog Millionare.



  1. Explain where the storyline for the film came from. Give examples. 
A retired army officer in the UK was convicted of fraud after cheating on the quiz show who wants to be a millionaire (WWTBAM). since the show was also massively popular in india, swarup then thought, 'who would be the least likely winner of the top prize in the india version- who might be accused of cheating
            
  1. List the ways in which Simon Beaufoy changed the story. Explain why this was done. 
Here are some of the ways Beaufoy changed the story:
  • the central character becomes muslim and one of two brothers from a mumbai slum. his name is changed to jamal. in the novel, the character is an orphan brought up in an english clergyman's house in deli and there is an explanation of why he can speak english and why he has a name that spans india's three major religions.
  • several of the sub-plots are removed to make the runs across the whole storyline 
  • The romance element is made more important and runs across the whole storyline.The story would be the further tweaked when danny boyle came o board as director, but in the final script boyle would claim that the narrative goal-essentially to bring the childhood sweethearts together- was not american since it downplayed winning the money. winning the girl seems to have worked with american audiences. 
  1. How did Tessa Ross and Christian Colson arrange funding? Why is this significant? 
Wile beaufoy was doing this work, Ross was securing the property in partnership with producer christian colson. a well known uk producer of smaller films, colson was in 2005 still associated with celador films,part of the group that owned the rights to WWTBAM. swarup had not used the shows title in the novel, but Ross thought that it was essential to be able to use it in the film. when colson secured these rights he was able to fund the production of teh film and then sell the distribution righs of the finished film to pathe in the UK and ireland and france, Warner Bros in north america and othr companies in territories around the world. With the revenue from this sale, Colson could cover the costs of production, but would retain control-meaning that the film would remain a UK production without Interference from the Hollywood distribution. 

  1. Explain the term ‘Bollywood’. 
Bollywood is a relatively recent term (perhaps in wide circulation only since the late 1980s). it refers to certain forms of popular cinema made in hindi-the official language of india understood by about 40 per cent of the population, mainly in the north . the capital of Bollywood is Mumbai (Bombay) where around two hundred films with big budget are made each year.

  1. What was the impact of Warner Bros closing it’s ‘specialist’ film labels on the distribution of Slumdog Millionaire? How was this resolved? 
There was every chance that slumdog millionaire would be pushed straight to DVD in North America as a result. Boyle and Colson rushed to Hollywood to try to rescue the film and succeeded in persuading Warner Bros to sell the rights to another studios specialist division, Fox searchlight. Both Boyle and Beaufroy had experienced success with Fox searchlight.


  1. Slumdog Millionaire is not a Hollywood film. Explain how it has been caught between Hollywood and Bollywood. (p. 167-170)
Hollywood films are global in the sense that they are understood and enjoyed in film markets around the world. Slumdog is not a Hollywood film, though it has been taken as one. In fact, for several reasons, Slumdog has been caught between Hollywood and Bollywood. Few audiences around the world think of it as a British film. Party because the film has been so successful that it has, accidentally, fulfilled the strong desire on behalf of both Hollywood and Bollywood producers to create a film that could succeed in both markets and then around the world.


  1. In your opinion, what made Slumdog Millionaire a successful film? Discuss pre-production, production, distribution and exhibition.
I think the main fact that Slumdog was such a successful film is due to that fact they most people don’t know whether it’s a Hollywood or Bollywood film. I think they would have had a very big impact on who watched the film and because some people thought it was Bollywood and others thought it was Hollywood; the audience would have been bigger then if it was one or the other.

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