Slumdog wins three awards at BIFAS

London (PTI): Slumdog Millionaire, an English movie based on the award-winning novel of Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup, won three awards at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAS) ceremony here.

The story of the Danny Boyle's film featuring Anil Kapoor revolves around a Mumbai teenage boy who astounds all by doing well on 'Kaun Banega Karorpati', Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire quiz show.

The film won the award in the category of best film, best director and best newcomer (for its British lead actor).

The former artistic director of the Royal Court theatre, Boyle, was talk of the night and is already on many pundits' Oscar prediction lists.

Earlier, he has directed films like Trainspotting showing Edinburgh heroin addicts and The Beach in which Leonardo DiCaprio played the main role.

The young lead actor of Slumdog Millionaire, Harrow-born Dev Patel, best known to British audiences as Anwar in E4's Skins, won the best newcomer award.

The film tells the story of a Mumbai street child. As he does well on the quiz show, flashbacks chronicle his life, the realities of which Danny Boyle does not flinch from showing.

Boyle's film, a third of which is spoken in Hindi opens in the UK on January 9 but has already down well on the festival circuit and opened to fantastic reviews in the US.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/

Big B's first international film

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has said that he is likely to sign an international film project which will be made by makers of the Oscar winning documentary March of the Penguin.

Big B wrote on his blog that he might give consent to this project to be made in English. The project will be produced and directed by the French makers and the film will be set in India and France.

"That is all that one can talk of right now," he wrote on his blog.

March of the Penguin directed by Luc Jacquet is about Antartica's emperor Penguins which earned $77 million at the US box office.

Big B has also hinted that he had got a Hollywood offer. "There is another project from the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull from Hollywood and I shall need to see the script before I consider any further," he said.

Amitabh Bachchan has recently wound up his Unforgettable tour with wife, son and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai. Bachchan Sr is currently in Paris.
Source: http://movies.ndtv.com

Amitabh Bachchan opens diabetes charity in Britain:

Bollywood's Bachchan family togetherness is at an all-time high as they perform live in concerts across the world.

Their last stop is London where they perform over the weekend to a packed house at the O2 arena with a capacity of 20,000. It was largely a Bachchan family affair with Aishwarya gushing about why it was so special for her.

"Doing it with the love of my life. Wonderful to have pa, my father in law and my mother in law with us. It's a real honour," said Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

"Getting to be very embarrassing. With your permission can I leave now," said Amitabh Bachchan.

The other stars who have on the Unforgettable tour with the Bachchans are Abhishek and Aishwarya's good friends Priety Zinta and Ritesh Deshmukh.

"Aishwarya really looked after me and pampered me, it is very cute," said Priety Zinta, actor.

"Mr Bachchan is so amazing on stage," said Ritesh Deshmukh. The last tour of this scale in Europe was Shah Rukh Khan's Temptation two months ago acknowledged as the most successful Bollywood showing overseas so far.

The London concert will probably decide whether the Bachchans have upstaged King Khan.

Source: http://movies.ndtv.com