Slumdog Celebrities

The cast of Slumdog Millionaire went out and did a bunch of touristy things in the days following their triumphant Oscar night, and well they should. Their vacation films were almost as good as the movie. While they returned to Mumbai to a deserved heroes' welcome, their time here looked a little weird.

The little guys who played the parts of the young brothers are cuter than can be, especially the one boy, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who plays young Jamal. This kid is the real star of the movie, and he was great fun to watch afterward. He won some carny prizes on Santa Monica pier and the cameras followed as he yelped and jumped and celebrated and had a great time.


Madhur Mittal, who plays the older Salim, was photographed post-Oscar mostly whipping his sunglasses on and off and looking into the distance, kind of like an Indian James Dean. Looks like a bit of a mope, but he's probably doing great with the ladies back in Mumbai.



Anil Kapoor plays Prem Kumar, the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in Slumdog. In the film, Prem is rather, shall we say, a dick. The clips that I caught of Anil's jaunts around L.A. suggest that the the character wasn't a real stretch for him. In fairness, the man is a 30+ year veteran of the film industry in his native country, so one can see where he'd expect a bit of deference from the press and public, and film clips can certainly be misleading and slanted. I thought he was just a curiousity.

In the end, outside the film, that's how they'll all be (vaguely) remembered in the USA. Just a curiousity.