Will Rahman have his day with ‘Slumdog’ at the Oscars?
February 21st, 2009 - 1:39 pm ICT by IANS
Los Angeles, Feb 21 (IANS) British director Danny Boyle’s hit film “Slumdog Millionaire” is the favourite to win the Oscar for best picture at Sunday night’s annual Academy Awards, but would luck smile on Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman too?
Rahman, the first Indian musician to be nominated for the annual Academy Awards, has been listed for three of the film’s ten Oscar nominations - one for his original score and two others for songs composed by him, “O Saya” and “Jai Ho.”
He also sang the first song along with MIA and Sukhwinder Singh as the lead singer for the second.
Other nominations for Slumdog Millionaire are: Best Picture; Best Director, Danny Boyle; Adapted screenplay, Simon Beaufoy; Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle; Film editing, Chris Dickens; Sound editing, Tom Sayers; and Sound mixing, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty.
The crowd-pleasing rags-to-riches story of a boy from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to win the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” has been the winter’s surprise winner, racking up victories at practically every juncture.
The Golden Globes gave “Slumdog” its top award; so did the Producers Guild, the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild and the Brtish BAFTAs.
The small-budgeted film itself was caught in a downsizing at its initial American studio (the Warner Independent Pictures, which was folded into parent Warner Bros.) and slated for straight-to-video until Fox Searchlight stepped in as US distributor. From there, the honours started rolling in - and haven’t stopped yet.
“I think that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is one of those very rare cases, where the movie comes out and you think, OK, that’s a good little movie … it will be happy to be nominated, and it will get some great recognition,” CNN quoted Oscar historian Steve Pond, author of “The Big Show” as saying.
“And somehow it has hung on, and the bigger movies that came out afterwards did not click with people as much, and suddenly this little movie was the best story of the year.”
That gives “Slumdog’s” best picture competition -”Milk,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Reader” - a major challenge in stopping the little film’s momentum.
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- Rahman creates history as 'Slumdog' turns top dog at Oscars (Lead) - Feb 23, 2009
- 'Slumdog Millionaire' gets 10 Oscar nominations - Jan 22, 2009
- Rahman loses BAFTA - Feb 14, 2011
- India-born Tariq Anwar misses Oscar for best editing - Feb 28, 2011
- Rahman's 'If I Rise' nominated for WSA - Aug 25, 2011
- Rahman in Oscar run again with two nominations for '127 Hours' - Jan 25, 2011
- List of eight Oscars won by 'Slumdog Millionaire' - Feb 23, 2009
- Rahman to perform at Oscars again - Feb 05, 2011
- 'Jai ho' Rahman at Golden Globe nominations again (Lead) - Dec 14, 2010
- India shines at Oscars with multiple awards (Afternoon Lead) - Feb 23, 2009
- 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'Jai Ho' bag Grammy nominations - Dec 02, 2010
- Rahman gets BAFTA nomination for '127 Hours' music - Jan 18, 2011
- Rahman wins Best Original Song Award in Los Angles - Jan 15, 2011
- You get success, then a movie gets ripped off: A.R. Rahman (Interview) - Jan 22, 2011
Tags: annual academy awards, british director, cnn, director danny boyle, fox searchlight, game show who wants to be a millionaire, golden globes, indian musician, music maestro, original score, producers guild, rags to riches, rags to riches story, simon beaufoy, steve pond, sukhwinder singh, surprise winner, tom sayers, warner independent pictures, who wants to be a millionaire
