We can't make 'Slumdog Millionaire' now: Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle says Slumdog Millionaire couldn’t be made today and rightly so. Reflecting on cultural shifts, he calls the 2008 Oscar-winning film a product of its time, acknowledging its outsider perspective and evolving views on appropriation.
PTI

Los Angeles, 21
June
Oscar winner Danny Boyle says it's not possible to make 'Slumdog Millionaire' now and believes that's how it should be.
Boyle's
directorial ''Slumdog Millionaire' released in 2008 and went on to
receive 8 Academy Awards at the 81st edition of the festival in 2009.
"We wouldn’t
be able to make that now. And that’s how it should be. It’s time to reflect on
all that. We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that
we’ve left on the world," Boyle told The Guardian in an interview.
Starring Dev Patel
and Freida Pinto in the lead roles, the British drama film followed the story
of Jamal Malik (Patel), a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on a
reality game show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'.
Asked if the film
was a form of colonialism, the filmmaker said, "No, no… Well, only in the
sense that everything is. At the time it felt radical. We made the decision
that only a handful of us would go to Mumbai. We’d work with a big Indian crew
and try to make a film within the culture. But you’re still an outsider. It’s
still a flawed method."
Boyle added he
wouldn't even get the film financed if he were to make it in present.
"That kind of
cultural appropriation might be sanctioned at certain times. But at other times
it cannot be. I mean, I’m proud of the film, but you wouldn’t even contemplate
doing something like that today. It wouldn’t even get financed. Even if I was
involved, I’d be looking for a young Indian filmmaker to shoot it."
"Slumdog
Millionaire" also featured Rubina Ali, Anil Kapoor and late actor Irrfan
Khan in pivotal roles.
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