Indo-Asian News Service
Los Angeles

It's Slumdog Millionaire all the way. After shining at the Golden Globes and BAFTA, the Mumbai-based film swept the 81st Academy awards winning eight Oscars, making the same fairytale journey that its hero had done in the movie.

Directed by Briton Danny Boyle, based on Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A, the film had received 10 Oscar nominations, including three for Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman and one for Resul Pookutty for sound mixing.

Music maestro A.R. Rahman became the first Indian to bag two Oscars for his work in British filmmaker Danny Boyle's much acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire, which tells the rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum dweller. Rahman was overwhelmed when he said, "There is a dialogue from an old Hindi film - "Mere paas ma hai" - which means I have nothing but a mother. My mother is here, I have her blessings. I am glad she could be here," said Rahman. He ended the acceptance speech by saying "God is great" in Tamil, something he says after winning every award.

The film managed to rake in over $100 million from collections across the globe, thougn in India it has grossed only Rs.215 million so far.

Set and filmed in Mumbai, Slumdog... narrates the story of an 18-year-old tea boy Jamal Malik, who appears on a quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of British reality show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and ends up being a winner, arousing suspicion from the show host as well as the law enforcement officials.

The film starred British-born Indian actor Dev Patel, Freida Pinto besides well-known Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan apart from others. The screenplay has been written by British writer Simon Beaufoy and co-directed by India-based Loveleen Tandon, who was also the casting director for the film.

On winning two awards (Best Directing and Best Picture), Danny Boyle said: "I want to thank my dad, my sisters and my wife... one person we haven't thanked is the choreographer who directed the last song in the film - Longines. I want to thank him too.

List of Oscars won by Slumdog Millionaire:

1. Best Picture

2. Best director - Danny Boyle

3. Best original song- A.R. Rahman and Gulzar

4. Best original score - A.R. Rahman

5. Best adapted screenplay - Simon Beaufoy

6. Best cinematography - Anthony Dod Mantle

7. Best sound mixing - Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty

8. Best editing - Chris Dickens

Earlier, Slumdog Millionaire had created ripples across the international film industry by winning seven BAFTA and four Golden Globe awards.

The film won seven BAFTAs for best film, best director, best original music score, best cinematography, best editing, best sound and best adapted screenplay.

At Golden Globes it bagged awards for best original music score, best motion picture-drama, best director and best writer.

At the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, the film bagged five trophies - best composer, best picture, best director, best writer and best young actor/actress for Dev Patel.