Critical Acclaim

Slumdog is highly acclaimed, named in top ten lists for many newspapers:
The film won 8 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
It won 7 BAFTAs for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Music, Best Editing and Best Sound.
It also won 4 Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score. It was released widely in the UK on 9th January 2009 and US on 23rd January 2009, just weeks before the awards ceremonies - Academy Awards, BAFTAS and Golden Globes.
Slumdog Millionaire has also been critically acclaimed in the Western World. As of 11 November 2009, Rotten Tomatoes has given the film a 93% rating with an average score of 8.2/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 86, based on 36 reviews. IMDB (Internet Movie Database) also gave the film a high rating of 8.4/10 - the 73rd highest out of all the movies they have ever reviewed.

Inspiration for Slumdog Millionaire

In addition to Swarup's original novel, the film was also inspired by Indian cinema. Tandan has referred to Slumdog Millionaire as a homage to Hindi commercial cinema. Boyle has cited the influence of several Bollywood films set in Mumbai. Satya (1998) and Company (2002) both offered 'slick, often mesmerizing portrayals of the Mumbai underworld' and displayed realistic 'brutality and urban violence.' Boyle has also stated that the chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a '12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi slum' in Black Friday (2004). Deewar (1975) which Boyle described as being 'absolutey key to the Indian cinema' is a crime film based on the Bombay gangster Haj Mastan, whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire. 

The rags-to-riches underdog theme underlying the film was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s, when "India worked to lift itself from hunger and poverty." 

Casting

Gail Stevens came on board to see oversee casting global. Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well-known for discovering new talent. Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US. The film-makers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat. 

Loveleen Tandnan was appointed one of the five casting directors and said "I suggested to Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy that it was important to put some of the film in Hindi to bring the film alive...They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogue which I instantly agreed to do. And as we drew closer to the shoot date, Danny asked me to step in as the co-director." Boyle then decided to translate a third of the film's English dialogue into Hindi. He asked for the dialogue to be 10% Hindi and the president of Warner Independent approved of the change. 

The main actors in the film, Jamal and Lakita, portrayed by Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are both British-Indian actors that were relatively well-known actor before Slumdog Millionaire - Dev Patel was a main character in the BAFTA-winning Skins, who was discovered by Danny Boyle when his daughter pointed him out to her dad. Freida Pinto was a model for four years appearing in multiple advertisements, but Slumdog was her breakthrough. Due to this, it became an advantage because the film would win a large audience of young people.

Cost of Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle was impressed with the way Simon Beaufoy wove the multiple storylines from Swarup's book into one simple narrative, so the director decided to commit to the project. The film was projected to cost up to US$15 million, so Celador sought a US distributor to share costs. Fox Searchlight Pictures made an initial offer that was reportedly in the $2 million range, but Warner Independent Pictures made a $5 million offer to win the rights of the picture. The gross venue totaled up to $377,417,293.

Production of Slumdog Millionaire

To hone the script, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy made three research trips to India and interviewed street children, finding himself impressed with their attitudes. He said "I want to get across the sense of this huge amount of fun, laughter, chat, and sense of community that is in these slums. What you pick up on is this mass of energy." Danny Boyle, after being approached by Simon Beaufoy, initially believed that no-one would be interested in a film about Who Want to be a Millionaire but revisited the script later on.

By the summer of 2006 British production companies Celador Films and Film 4  Productions invited director Danny Boyle to read the script of Slumdog Millionaire, but initially hesitated as he was not interested in making a film about 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' however soon found out that Simon Beaufoy wrote 'The Full Monty' one of the director's favourite films so decided to revisit the script. The film is in production with Film 4, Celador Films and Pathe Pictures International.

I believe that films such as 'Borat', 'Bruno' and 'Enduring Love' have helped Film 4 Productions thrive as a film business. It was rare for a blockbuster to receive so much commercial and critical acclaim that involved so little planning and distribution.