In Slumdog Millionaire, a poor orphan without any schooling makes it to the final round of India's biggest quiz show, causing an entire nation to wonder how he's doing it -- and the police to arrest him on suspicion of cheating when the show breaks for the evening.
Despite winning numerous festival and audience awards, Slumdog initially wasn't going to be released in the U.S. Director Danny Boyle says, "It's sort of a bit like the story in the film really -- the film and this guy apparently [have] no prospects and then they get turned around and suddenly fortune beckons."
The movie was inspired by Q & A: A Novel, the first book by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup. To write the movie's original script, Simon Beaufoy "had to go to Bombay and rediscover a whole life story for this character...while keeping this very seductive core of [the novel]."
To find more details about Slumdog Millionaire, which is being viewed as an Oscar contender, see our interview with Slumdog director and interview with the movie's writer.