 |
| Vikas Swarup |
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Hope-sells-says-Vikas-Swarup/articleshow/4016211.cms
As music director AR Rahman became the first Indian to win the Golden Globe for his score in Slumdog Millionaire in a celebrity-studded event in Los Angeles, the country erupted in cheers.
In another corner of the world, Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A on which the film is based, also cheered.
Swarup takes in his stride the fact that he was not invited for the Globes' ceremony, "For the film folk, the author is incidental." The Pretoria-based diplomat, who sold the film rights through an agent a year before it was published, found the film visually dazzling, with director Danny Boyle bringing his unique "outsider's perspective to it".
"Till now," he says, "our films made it mostly to the foreign films' section." Since the film is set in India, he believes the awards might even spur Hollywood location scouting in the country.
He first met Boyle and the cast at the London film festival, where he also saw the film for the first time. Swarup, who cleared the first two drafts of the screenplay, talks of the creative liberties in the film, based on the heartwarming story of an 18 year-old orphan who wins on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ? game show, "The boy is called Jamal Malik (played by Dev Patel) and not Ram Mohammad Thomas, his friend Salim becomes his brother and Pinto's character Latika (played by Freida Pinto) is shown as a gangster's moll, and not as Neeta, the prostitute as in the book."
There are other changes too. Swarup, who terms his work as being based "on the underclass", adds that unlike in the book, the three characters are taught The Three Musketeers in school as children. In the book, the unschooled Ram Mohammad Thomas picks up all his knowledge through his life experiences, among which are instances of him escaping sexual abuse or his friend Salim watching the image of his matinee idol shatter as he feels his advances in a dark cinema hall.
Swarup was also asked what the pejorative " slumdog ", used in the film's title and by a police officer against the boy after he's arrested on winning on the quiz show, meant to him. He says, "I said that it reminded me of someone who had to scavenge for food and didn't know where his next meal was coming from, which is true of the character." However, he adds dryly, "The character though is later shown working as a tea boy in a call centre."
He has also come to terms with the name of the protagonist changing to the somewhat ubiquitous Jamal. "Ram Mohhamad Thomas is a name you can't ignore - it's like an elephant in the room. I suppose one would wonder how to address him on the show, besides taking up valuable screen time in explaining how he came about the name," he says. For readers, though, the name was meant to create a "larger-than-life" character, who the author didn't want slotted into labels of caste and religion.
The film is also packaged with romance as the axis, where Jamal looks at finding his true love and destiny through the quizmaster, forsaking the revenge angle in the book, where the orphan takes on the suave show anchor (played by Anil Kapoor), for having tormented his former mentor, a Bollywood actress, and later, his girlfriend.
So, is he alright with the changes? "Well, I did a spot poll at the London film festival after the screening and everybody loved the film! Nothing succeeds like success."
The film's success also meant that the book was repackaged and sold under the film's title. He explains, "I did find out if it was legal to do that, but then I was told that it's very much the norm and the ultimate idea anyway was to have the book reach as many as possible."
In fact, a Sunday editorial in the Washington Times described Slumdog Millionaire as "the kind of movie Hollywood used to make - a film that transmits eternal verities and has universal appeal."
As Swarup says, "The slums are not a place of despair. Its inhabitants are all working towards a better life." The film, he says, is a slice of life from India, "where the lives of the rich and poor intersect; you may be in a Mercedes and a beggar's hand will be thrust before you."
He's also happy with the cast and while he would've preferred the original quizmaster Amitabh Bachchan, whose father was a friend of his own grandfather's, he adds, "Hats off to Anil Kapoor!"
The film rights for Swarup's second book Six Suspects, which falls in a similar genre of thriller-cum-social commentary with the tagline "There's a caste system even in murder", have also been sold, this time to BBC's Star Field Productions.
Is that another winner? That's a million-dollar question!
In another corner of the world, Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A on which the film is based, also cheered.
Swarup takes in his stride the fact that he was not invited for the Globes' ceremony, "For the film folk, the author is incidental." The Pretoria-based diplomat, who sold the film rights through an agent a year before it was published, found the film visually dazzling, with director Danny Boyle bringing his unique "outsider's perspective to it".
"Till now," he says, "our films made it mostly to the foreign films' section." Since the film is set in India, he believes the awards might even spur Hollywood location scouting in the country.
He first met Boyle and the cast at the London film festival, where he also saw the film for the first time. Swarup, who cleared the first two drafts of the screenplay, talks of the creative liberties in the film, based on the heartwarming story of an 18 year-old orphan who wins on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ? game show, "The boy is called Jamal Malik (played by Dev Patel) and not Ram Mohammad Thomas, his friend Salim becomes his brother and Pinto's character Latika (played by Freida Pinto) is shown as a gangster's moll, and not as Neeta, the prostitute as in the book."
There are other changes too. Swarup, who terms his work as being based "on the underclass", adds that unlike in the book, the three characters are taught The Three Musketeers in school as children. In the book, the unschooled Ram Mohammad Thomas picks up all his knowledge through his life experiences, among which are instances of him escaping sexual abuse or his friend Salim watching the image of his matinee idol shatter as he feels his advances in a dark cinema hall.
Swarup was also asked what the pejorative " slumdog ", used in the film's title and by a police officer against the boy after he's arrested on winning on the quiz show, meant to him. He says, "I said that it reminded me of someone who had to scavenge for food and didn't know where his next meal was coming from, which is true of the character." However, he adds dryly, "The character though is later shown working as a tea boy in a call centre."
He has also come to terms with the name of the protagonist changing to the somewhat ubiquitous Jamal. "Ram Mohhamad Thomas is a name you can't ignore - it's like an elephant in the room. I suppose one would wonder how to address him on the show, besides taking up valuable screen time in explaining how he came about the name," he says. For readers, though, the name was meant to create a "larger-than-life" character, who the author didn't want slotted into labels of caste and religion.
The film is also packaged with romance as the axis, where Jamal looks at finding his true love and destiny through the quizmaster, forsaking the revenge angle in the book, where the orphan takes on the suave show anchor (played by Anil Kapoor), for having tormented his former mentor, a Bollywood actress, and later, his girlfriend.
So, is he alright with the changes? "Well, I did a spot poll at the London film festival after the screening and everybody loved the film! Nothing succeeds like success."
The film's success also meant that the book was repackaged and sold under the film's title. He explains, "I did find out if it was legal to do that, but then I was told that it's very much the norm and the ultimate idea anyway was to have the book reach as many as possible."
In fact, a Sunday editorial in the Washington Times described Slumdog Millionaire as "the kind of movie Hollywood used to make - a film that transmits eternal verities and has universal appeal."
As Swarup says, "The slums are not a place of despair. Its inhabitants are all working towards a better life." The film, he says, is a slice of life from India, "where the lives of the rich and poor intersect; you may be in a Mercedes and a beggar's hand will be thrust before you."
He's also happy with the cast and while he would've preferred the original quizmaster Amitabh Bachchan, whose father was a friend of his own grandfather's, he adds, "Hats off to Anil Kapoor!"
The film rights for Swarup's second book Six Suspects, which falls in a similar genre of thriller-cum-social commentary with the tagline "There's a caste system even in murder", have also been sold, this time to BBC's Star Field Productions.
Is that another winner? That's a million-dollar question!
No comments:
Post a Comment