Slumdog Millionaire is an Academy Award-winning 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan,and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.
Set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati, mentioned in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.
After screenings at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire initially had a limited North American release on November 12, 2008 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, to critical acclaim and awards success. It later had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2009 and in the United States on January 23, 2009. It premiered in Mumbai on January 22, 2009.
Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won eight of them, the most of any film that year, including Best Picture. It also won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film. The film is also the subject of controversy concerning its portrayal of India and Hinduism as well as the welfare of its child actors.
