Slumdog Too Real for Mumbai's Multiplexes

One day after Slumdog Millionaire had been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, the film opened to 25%-full theaters across India, the country of its setting. Buoyed by the hype the movie has generated in the U.S. — winning four Golden Globes and five Critics' Choice awards — and also by the controversy it has aroused in Bollywood, where heavy-hitters have come out to bat for and against it — Fox Searchlight released 400 prints of the film across India last Friday. But while Indian critics have largely embraced the film's "Bollywood idiom" and its "message of hope", audiences are staying away. Sales reached 50% of capacity on Saturday, which was an improvement on the opening day, but hardly a 21-gun salute. MORE...