Bollywood Adda

The young lead actors of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which has emerged as one of the biggest audience catcher of the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), are having the time of their lives in Toronto.

The two teenagers, Londoner Dev Patel and Mumbai girl Freida Pinto are on a dream run. They are two of the freshest stars on the international movie firmament with the film poised to cast a spell wherever it plays.

At their post-premiere press conference as well as at subsequent parties, Patel and Pinto lapped up all the attention they attracted.

Boyle cast Patel in the role of the titular character on a suggestion from his teenage daughter, a fan of Skins, a British television series featuring the 17-year-old actor in the lead role.
Pinto landed the role of the heroine of the film after a round of auditions. "I am out and out Mumbai girl, so the role wasn’t difficult for me" she told the media. Any more films on the way? "Well, none at the moment," she revealed.

At the press conference, Patel, sitting alongside Boyle, chose to keep a low profile. Asked how and why Boyle chose him for the part, he quipped, "My lack of muscles got me the role."

This was a follow-up to Boyle's statement that he was looking for an ordinary, vulnerable-looking guy and not "the sort of muscle-bound Bollywood star who finds it tough to lower his arms". The guy clearly knows his cues.

At the annual TIFF party hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the body that hands out the annual Golden Globes, the duo was among those who were the first to arrive and the last to leave.

"I do not want this to ever end," Patel was overheard saying after having his photograph clicked with Paris Hilton.

Pinto, on her part, lost no opportunity to soak in the warmth spread by the presence of Hollywood stars like Rachel Weisz, Tim Robbins and Ethan Hawke, among others.

The Slumdog Millionaire stars sat in a corner and chatted incessantly, probably exchanging notes on what the future held for them.

The film is adapted from Indian diplomat-author Vikas Swarup's best seller novel 'Q & A' and scripted by Simon Beaufoy of The Full Monty fame.

It is the story of an 18-year-old uneducated slum dweller who goes on to win the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and, in bargain, reconnects with his lost love.

by indianexpress.com