Slumdog... receives Directors Guild Award

Irish-British filmmaker Danny Boyle's underdog drama Slumdog Millionaire has bagged the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

According to reports the DGA is tipped as a barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director and only six times since the DGA awards began in 1948 has the winner not gone on to receive the Best Director Oscar.

The award was presented to Boyle by Joel and Ethan Coen, the director team that won the 2007 DGA Feature Film Award for No Country for Old Men.

SRK doesn't regret refusing Slumdog

Shah Rukh Khan has a knack of staying in the limelight. First it was the success of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi that broke the jinx for Yash Raj at the box office in 2008, then the Golden Globe presentation and now all the item numbers for his upcoming movie Billoo Barber.

But for once he seems to have missed out on a huge opportunity to soak in the glory of a critically acclaimed, international award winning project! Yes we are referring to the Golden Globe winner Slumdog Millionaire.

Danny Boyle had initially approached Shah Rukh for Slumdog Millionaire for the role of game-show host but King Khan refused. As luck would have it, the role went to the veteran actor Anil Kapoor.

Though Shah Rukh claims he isn't complaining at all. Talking to the media he said that he has no regrets about turning down the role, which has put Anil Kapoor into the global limelight.

Praising Anil Kapoor for his work, SRK said that Kapoor has done a fabulous job and deserves the adulation he has received. Some of the other famous rejects of Shah Rukh inlcude the Oscar nominates Lagaan, the hugley popular Munnabhai MBBS and moore recently the Three Idiots.

There were rumours that the original choice for the role was Amitabh Bachchan, but the film's casting director Loveleen Tandon denied such reports.

Slumdog is bookies favourite to win Oscars

With a successful run at the Golden Globe Awards, British director Danny Boyle's Mumbai-based story of an underdog, Slumdog Millionaire, has emerged as a clear favourite with bookies to win the next month's Oscars.

Bookies here put the feel-good movie starring Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan at 8/15 on to scoop the coveted Best Picture prize at the Academy Awards, well in front of rivals The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Frost/Nixon and Revolutionary Road.

The film's director Danny Boyle is also 4-6 favourite to win the best director trophy at the February 22 ceremony.

A spokesman for bookmakers Paddy power said: Slumdog Millionaire has been heavily backed for the last couple of weeks and, after its success at the Golden Globes, it looks set for Oscars glory."

The low-budget flick about an orphan from the Mumbai slums who strikes it rich on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was released in the UK on Friday.

In the US, where it was released last year, the film has already generated over $ 30 million at the box office despite being on limited release. Slumdog Millionaire currently sits at number two in the top 10 in the UK, with the highest screen average of all films on release.

The film won four prestigious Golden Globe awards for Best Picture in the Drama category, Best Director for Danny Boyle, best Screenplay for Simon Beaufoy and Best Original Score in a Motion Picture for Indian composer A R Rahman.

Based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's Q & A, the film also won five prizes at the Los Angeles Critics choice Awards last week, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best writer, Best Composer and Best Young Actor for Dev Patel.