Nominated for 10 Oscars. Another 49 wins & 29 nominations.
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan,[2] and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize nominated novel Q and A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.

Set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young, uneducated 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 12 November 2008 to critical acclaim and awards success, and later had a nationwide release in the United States on 23 January 2009[3] and in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009. It premiered in Mumbai on 22 January 2009.[4]

Slumdog Millionaire has won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes (including Best Drama Film), and seven BAFTA Awards (including Best Film). The film has also been nominated for ten Academy Awards. Slumdog Millionaire is also the subject of criticism over allegations that it perpetuates western stereotypes about poverty in India, includes inappropriate portrayals of Hindu religious beliefs, and exploits some of the child actors who are still living in Mumbai slums.

Plot
Slumdog Millionaire opens with a police inspector (Irrfan Khan) in Mumbai, India, interrogating and torturing Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, also played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar and Tanay Chheda), a former street child from the Dharavi slums. Jamal is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Kaun Banega Crorepati) hosted by Prem Kumar (noted Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor). Jamal has made it to the final question, but the police are now accusing him of cheating.

Jamal then begins to offer an explanation of how he knew the answers which is conveyed as a series of flashbacks documenting the particulars of his childhood. This includes scenes of him obtaining the autograph of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan; the death of his mother during Hindu-Muslim riots in the slums; and how he and his brother Salim (Madhur Mittal, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, and Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala) befriended the orphan girl, Latika (Freida Pinto, Rubina Ali, and Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar). As Jamal's favorite book from his short period in school was The Three Musketeers, he refers to Salim and himself as Athos and Porthos, and Latika as the third Musketeer.

The children are eventually discovered by Maman (Ankur Vikal) while they live in the trash heaps. Maman is a gangster (a fact they do not actually know at the time they meet him) who "collects" street children so that he can ultimately train them to beg for money. Salim is groomed to become a part of Maman’s operation and is asked to bring Jamal to Maman in order to be blinded (which would improve his income potential as a singing beggar). Salim rebels against Maman to protect his brother, and the three children try to escape, but only Salim and Jamal are successful as Salim purposely lets go of Latika's hand as she tries to board the train. Latika is re-captured by Maman's organization and raised as a culturally talented prostitute whose virginity will fetch a high price.

The brothers eke out a living, traveling on top of trains, selling goods, pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal, and pickpocketing. Jamal eventually insists that they return to Mumbai since he wishes to locate Latika. When he finds her working as a dancer in a brothel, the brothers attempt to rescue her, but Maman intrudes, and in the resulting conflict Salim draws a gun and kills Maman. Salim then uses the fact that he killed Maman to obtain a job with Javed (Mahesh Manjrekar), a rival crime lord. Salim claims Latika as his own and when Jamal protests, Salim threatens to kill him and Latika intervenes, accepting her fate with Salim and breaking Jamal's heart.

Years later, Jamal has a position as a "chai-wallah", (a boy or young man who serves tea) at a call centre. When he is asked to cover for a co-worker for a couple of minutes, he searches the database for Salim and Latika. He gets in touch with Salim, who has become a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed’s organization. Salim invites Jamal to live with him and, after following Salim to Javed's house, he sees Latika living there. He talks his way in as the new dishwasher and tries to convince Latika to leave. She rebuffs his advances, but he promises to be at the VT (Victoria Terminal, or Chhatrapati Shivaji) railway station every day at 5 p.m. for her. One day Latika attempts to rendezvous with him, but is recaptured by Salim and Javed's men. One of the men then slashes her cheek with a knife, scarring her as Salim drives off.

Jamal again loses contact with Latika when Javed moves to another home. In another attempt to find Latika, Jamal tries out for the popular game show because he knows that she will be watching. He makes it to the final question, despite the hostile attitude of the host who feeds Jamal an incorrect answer during a break. At the end of the episode's taping, Jamal has one question left to win 20 million, or two crore, rupees and is taken into police custody, where he is tortured as the police attempt to learn how Jamal, a simple "slumdog", could know the answers to so many questions. After Jamal tells his whole story, explaining how his life experiences coincidentally enabled him to know the answer to each question, the police inspector calls his explanation "bizarrely plausible" and allows Jamal to return to the show for the final question. At Javed's safehouse, Latika watches the news coverage of Jamal's miraculous run on the show. Salim gives Latika the keys to his car and his phone and urges her to run away. When Jamal uses his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call Salim, Latika answers his phone and they reconnect. She does not know the answer to the final question either, but believing that "it is written", Jamal guesses the correct answer (Aramis) to the question of the one Musketeer whose name they never learned, and wins the grand prize. Simultaneously, Salim is discovered to have helped Latika escape and allows himself to be killed in a bathtub full of money after shooting and killing Javed. Salim's last words are "God is great". Later that night, Jamal and Latika meet at the train station, and finally share a kiss. The closing credits then imitate a Bollywood-style musical number.

Cast
Dev Patel as Jamal Malik, the protagonist, a Muslim boy born and raised in the poverty of Mumbai.[22] Boyle considered hundreds of young male actors, although he found that Bollywood leads were generally "strong, handsome hero-types", not the personality he was looking for. Gail Stevens, the casting director, pointed him out from the British television ensemble drama Skins, of which Patel was a cast member.[6] The actor was cast in August 2007.[9] Patel is now represented by UTA. The original choice for the role was Bollywood actor Ruslaan Mumtaz, but the producer of the film "found Ruslaan too good looking for the role and so he was replaced by Dev Patel."[23]
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as Youngest Jamal
Tanay Chheda as Middle Jamal
Freida Pinto as Latika, the girl with whom Jamal is in love. Pinto was an Indian model who had not starred in a feature film before.Regarding the "one of a kind" scarf she wears, "designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb" says, "I wanted to bookend the journey--to tie her childhood yellow dress to her final look.She is now represented by CAA.
Rubina Ali as Youngest Latika
Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as Middle Latika
Madhur Mittal as Salim, Jamal's elder brother.
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as Youngest Salim
Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as Middle Salim
Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar, the game show host.
Irrfan Khan as the Police Inspector
Saurabh Shukla as Constable Srinivas
Mahesh Manjrekar as Javed / Raja
Ankur Vikal as Maman
Raj Zutshi as Millionaire show producer
Sanchita Choudhary as Jamal's mother
Shah Rukh Munshi as a Slum kid

Let's hear your view about this movie

You're late

Apparently it's not that great, have not watched it myself though, yet anyway.

I reckon it's alright. .i'm quite impressed by the little kids. They are quite good in acting. I'm also not pleased by the height of poverty that exists in india

The movie is good,I like the storyline, !

Have to see this movie.

Busygirl, this movie has been flogged to death in many threads. Ask sisikill.

Ah well,,i liked the trailer, but we all know this can be deceiving

I also heard that Indian Directors are really angry about the movie. . .

they say because an American directed it, thats why its receiving so much attention

and that he didn't portray India in a good light,

I hear a lot of Indians in general are pissed off. Even Mercedes Benz asked for their logos to be removed from the cars because they didn't want to be associated with slums.

I just watched the movie and I must say it is going to take best picture. It is a great movie.

I have some indians I worked with and they do not like the movie one bit. But who cares? the movie is a movie that cant be stopped right now