Trivia for
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Mercedes-Benz asked that its logos be removed in scenes taking place in the slums. The company, according to Danny Boyle, did not want to be associated with the poverty-stricken area, fearing that that might taint its image.
  
  
• The actor whose autograph young Jamal gets is Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan is a very real, and very famous Indian actor, the original host of the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (1998) (called "Kaun Banega Crorepati?" (2000)), and also the father-in-law of Aishwarya Rai (or Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan as she is known after marriage).
  
  
• The cricket match being shown on television in Javed's house is the 1st one day international of the Future Cup between India and South Africa played at Civil Service Cricket Club, Stormont, Belfast on June 26 2007. As shown in the movie, Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian batsman, was run out on 99. India went on to score 242 and South Africa won the match by 4 wickets with 3 balls remaining.
  
  
• The film used a prototype Digital Cinema Camera from Silicon Imaging. When used in Mumbai, there were SI technicians on set constantly to deal with any problems the prototype had, of which there were many.
  
  
• Director Danny Boyle placed the money to be paid to the 3 lead child actors in a trust that is to be released to them upon their completion of grade school at 16 years of age. The production company has set up for an auto-rikshaw driver to take the kids to school everyday until they are 16 years old.
  
  
• Chris Tarrant, the host of the original, UK version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (1998), featured in Danny Boyle's debut film Shallow Grave (1994). He appears as the host of another TV quiz show "Lose A Million" but only on a TV screen.
  
  
• In the opening chase scene where Jamal and Salim jump down from a building to the ground is an reference to Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996) in which the main character Renton jumps down into the frame at a drug dealer's.
  
  
• In the scene where the adult Salim's phone rings soon after the adult Jamal finds him, the ringtone is part of the theme music from A.R. Rahman's work on the Indian movie Swades: We, the People (2004). Rahman is this film's composer.
  
  
• The current exchange rate for 20,000,000 Rupees (the grand prize on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire") is USD$411,600.
  
  
• The film was originally intended to receive a PG-13 rating. In the end, it received an R rating because of its intense tone. With no time or money for appeals, the film was released with its given rating.
  
  
• Approximately 20% of the movie's dialog is in Hindi (with English subtitles).
  
  
• The second Danny Boyle film to feature a protagonist diving into a toilet, after Trainspotting (1996).
  
  
• The pile of excreta that the young Jamal jumps into was made from a combination of peanut butter and chocolate.
  
  
• When Salim goes to Javed's den to announce that he has killed Maman, the movie playing in the theatre nearby is the Sunil Shetty starrer Maseeha (2002). Mahesh Manjrekar, who plays Javed, made his acting debut in Kaante (2002), which was released exactly a week after Maseeha (2002).
  
  
• This movie almost was released straight to DVD instead of getting a theatrical release.
  
  
• A.R. Rahman took just 20 days to compose the entire soundtrack.
  
  
• The song "Jai Ho" was originally made for movie Yuvvraaj (2008), composed by A.R. Rahman and lyrics written by Gulzar, but the producer Subhash Ghai did not find it fitting in the movie for the actor Zayed Khan, so he let the song be used for this production.
  
  
• In the scene early in the film where Maman approaches Jamal and Salim to give them a cool drink, the "Thums Up" branding had to be removed on the request of the manufacturers who did not want to be associated with the film.
  
  
• This is the first film since Schindler's List (1993) to win Best Picture, Director and Screenplay at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the Oscars.
  
  
• Longiness Fernandes was the choreographer of the dance sequence set to the song "Jai Ho", which is played during the end credits. But his name was inadvertently left out in the credits of the film. Upset with this, Longiness skipped the preview parties. Danny Boyle was also upset over this mistake and promised Longiness that he would make it up to him, and did it in style. While accepting the Best Director Oscar, he admitted his mistake before the audience and thanked Longinus. The song "Jai Ho" also won the Best Song Oscar for A.R. Rahman and Gulzar.
  
  
• When young Salim goes to sell the autograph of Amitabh Bachchan to the projectionist of the theatre, the movie being played is Ram Balram (1980/I). The film can be seen running out-of-focus. The voices heard belong to Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan and Ajit. The film also had Ajit's character beating up and terrorizing kids Ram and Balram, the characters played by Dharmendra and Amitabh - a possible allusion to the treatment meted out to the slum children.
  
  
• Local Indian authorities decided to step in and move the children and their families from slums to new houses.
  
  
• Inside the police station, photographic portraits of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi can be seen on the wall.
  
  
• The film is based upon Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A".
  
  
• The first Best Cinematography Oscar winner to be predominantly shot in digital. This is also the first Best Picture Oscar winner since 1928 not to be shot on Kodak film (35mm segments were filmed on Fuji stocks).
  
  
• Throughout the film, particularly in the scenes where Jamal lives as a child in the slums, the word "chaiwala" can be seen. Jamal is a chaiwala (tea server).
  
  
• One of two Best Picture Oscar winners to show a child jumping into the waste pool under a toilet. The other is Schindler's List (1993).
  
  
• Jamal and Latika's dance at the end of the movie was originally choreographed for the song "Aaj Ki Raat" from Don (2006/I). Editor Chris Dickens is responsible for synchronizing the steps with the beats of "Jai Ho". "Aaj Ki Raat", however, is also part of this movie.
  
  
• The song "Aaj Ki Raat", which is playing at the scene near the end with Latika and the gangster that Salim works for where there are other girls dancing is from Don (2006/I) that stars superstar Shahrukh Khan. It is a remake of Don (1978), starring Amitabh Bachchan. Coincidentally, Amitabh was the original host of "Kaun Banega Crorepati?" (2000) (the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (1998)), and Shahrukh is the current host.
  
  
• Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy visited India three times while writing the screenplay.
  
  
• What makes the movie even more remarkable for its awards and critical acclaim, is the fact that it marked the feature debuts of leads Dev Patel and Freida Pinto.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Danny Boyle] [Scotland] The first customer Jamal speaks to while working on the phones at the call center is an irate Scottish woman who lives in Kingussie, Inverness.
  
  
• When initially released on DVD in the United States, March 2009, Fox Home Entertainment accidentally shipped to retailers millions of rental DVD copies packaged in retail DVD cases. These DVDs were distinguished by having none of the bonus features advertised other than several movie trailers. As a result, a massive recall effort was implemented over the web, with the assistance of UPS for customers to exchange the rental DVDs for the retail ones.
  
  
• At the opening of the film when the police are torturing Jamal to get answers as to how he supposedly cheated, the Inspector asks him if he had: 'a coughing accomplice in the audience'. This claim does have some factual grounding; in a 2001 recording of the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Major Charles Ingram won the £1,000,000 prize, however during the recording mysterious coughing patterns could be heard as well as Ingram's attitude in the chair that gave the producers suspicions. It was later found out that he did in fact have a coughing accomplice in the audience who, when Ingram read out the answers, coughed on the correct answer when mentioned.
  
  
• The only film to win Best Picture with no former Oscar-nominees in its cast.
  
  

• SPOILER: The opera that Jamal and Salim see a bit of from under the bleachers at the Taj Mahal is Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" that is based on the Greek myth in which Orpheus, distraught at his wife Euridice's death, travels all the way to the Underworld in an attempt to retrieve her. Jamal's lifelong quest to rescue Latika from the various "underworld" figures who have control of her is an echo of this myth. Furthermore, the first singer to perform the role of Orpheus (in 1762) was a castrato, which means that while he was a little boy, he had been castrated so as to allow him to continue hitting the higher notes that boy singers can reach before they undergo puberty and their voices drop. The film's subplot in which children are kidnapped by Maman and mutilated so that they will be more lucrative beggars and street singers is an echo of this opera's history.
  
  
• SPOILER: The song "Darshan Do Ghanshyam" which is used by the "selecters" to select and train child beggars before blinding them was composed and sung by Surdas, a legendary medieval Indian singer who was also blind.
  
  

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