Slumdog Millionaire fuels the fire for Shantaram with 8 Oscars

by admin on Feb.23, 2009, under Mumbai, News, Shantaram Movie

The Danny Boyle film adaption of Vikas Swarup’s book Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars at the awards ceremony this weekend, and many are now speculating that the success of this India/Mumbai based movie will turn up the heat on the production of Shantaram.

Shantaram has been on the back burner for Director Mira Niar for some time now, and with the success of Slumdog it is expeted that Studio Chiefs will want to fast-track the Shantaram movie into production. The movie, set to star Johnny Depp as Lin, appears to have found it’s moment for both the Hollywood studios and the general movie-going public.

Lead Actors from Movie Slumdof Millionaire

Favorite of Gregory David Roberts, bollywood composer A.R. Rahman picked up 2 Oscars for his music score in Slumdog. It is not known whether Rahman was to set the score for Shantaram, however his success with this film and Gregory’s fondness for his music may be the catalysts for him joining the Shantaram project.

What’s clear from this news is that movie goers are keen to see adaptions of thought provoking bestsellers projected on the silver screen, and if the success of Shantaram could be measured, then this is a strong indicator that the movie would do very well indeed.

Discuss this news with us on the Community Forum, and let us know what you thought of the book, or the film, and what’s to come for the Shantaram Movie and more.

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2 Comments for this entry

  • miracle maid
    May 1st, 2009 on 3:13 am

    I love Johhny Depp – he is gifted and a fine actor but for this role? I’m not sure. I picked up Shantaram at Heathrow Airport with only the cover blurb to go on. I remain in awe of the tenacity of the author even if we will never know the full story and even if the theme of redemption is a tricky one to take on. I don’t know if I could endure a film of it.

    In Slumdog I came out exhausted and my muscles aching having shielded my eyes for a lot of the scenes. As to comments to stop depicting India (and Mumbai in particular) as a land of slums it’s like trying to edit Trainspotting to show Scotland as a land of lochs, haggises and Sean Connery…

    That said we are all a stone’s throw away from the underbelly of our own societies and it’s often easier to distance the questions by transposing stories to another land. Writers have been doing it for ever.

    The carnaval ending of Slumdog was a bold choice. Without it the film, for me, was too bleak. I don’t agree that the characters were Teflon cut outs. Those who endure the greatest sorrows are not those who bemoan their fate day in day out – there is too much ‘pudeur’ involved as we say in French. People bent on surviving can only sink or swim and the less existential probing they do the better. Could you put one foot in front of the next if your every waking moment was a vision of your mother being clubbed to death?

    Danny Boyle has achieved a remarkable film with or without the Oscars – hype is irrelevant and the only thing that matters is what the film says to you as the spectator. It spoke heaps to me.

  • justine kelly
    January 23rd, 2010 on 6:50 pm

    I agree that Johnny Depp is not right. I was so depressed when I heard about it. Lin is not just a crim.

    Shantaram is a chance for Indians to see Australia as a people who have struggled and done bad things to survive and still struggle with our conscience… What we did to Aborigines in order to survive ourselves…we know we owe them. It’s India’s chance to see we may appear to be neat and sweet pretty Westerners, but we are not North Americans nor Europeans. We descend from the political prisoners of the British, we descend from convicts who found the best revenge was success and happiness. Hence our love of sport and winning! We are dark and light, we are complex, we do great things and horrible things, but we are capable of self-evaluation, regret and forgiveness. We party too hard, drink too much and get addicted to drugs too easily, but we find peace in nature and the sea. We know we are lucky to have space around us and this is our advantage in the world. And we do love and admire Indians, our brothers in colonial triumph.

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