Fussbett wrote:

There are protests over "Slumdog" in India.



He's the future of India. :(

India's got nothing but love for Slumdog

Thanks to the Oscars, the film - once the subject of political protest - has made Indians proud

NEW DELHI -- The gleam of eight Oscars, it seems, is bright enough to distract a whole lot of people: In India a mere two days ago, Slumdog Millionaire was the subject of occasional political protest and often-acrimonious debate about "poverty porn;" reigning Bollywood stars sneered at it as an outsider's clumsy attempt at telling Indian stories.

But when, yesterday morning local time, the improbable rags-to-riches tale swept the Academy Awards, half of India skipped work or school to watch TV, and no one remembered they ever had anything but love for the film.

"The winners have done all of India proud," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh enthused in a statement. Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who recently mocked the film as a foreigner's exercise in exoticism, was in a similar state of mind: "International recognition for Indian film talent on one of the most well-known and popular forums is the happiest day for Indians and the industry," he blogged after the Oscars.

Mr. Rahman's peppy dance number Jai Ho (which translates from the Hindi as "victory to you") won the Oscar for best original song - sparking feverish speculation in the Indian media about whether this would "finally" be the moment that Bollywood music "broke out" of its massive Asian market and into the iPods of Western consumers.

"It's great to see Indians being recognized like this," said Geeta Tamang, a New Delhi paralegal who watched Mr. Rahman's acceptance speech on a friend's cellphone in her office. "Maybe the next time it will be for a real Indian film, with an Indian director and everything."