And the Oscar goes to . . . Slumdog Millionaire.” This line was delivered eight
ID: 1158436 • Letter: A
Question
And the Oscar goes to . . . Slumdog Millionaire.”
This line was delivered eight times in Hollywood at the 81st Annual Academy Awards. Not bad for a film produced on a shoestring budget of $15 million—a pittance by Hollywood standards. It is the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who overcomes all odds to beat a television quiz show (the Indian equivalent of the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”) and wins an award of 20,000,000 rupees.
The film’s success turned the world’s attention to India. Some were excited by the global interest, but others were not pleased. They felt that the film did not depict the “real” India. Many from Dharavi, the Mumbai slum featured in the film, protested that the name “Slumdog” was derogatory.
Give specific examples of how Slumdog Millionaire is part of the culture production system? Specifically, what are the three major subsystems and who are the cultural gatekeepers in this context?
Explanation / Answer
A cultural production system refers to the group of people or associations who create a market a cultural product. Here the cultural product is the film “Slumdog Millionaire”.
In this case the entire cast and crew responsible for the making of the film including people like Danny Boyle (director), Dev Patel (actor), Frieda Pinto (actor) and other actors, musician A.R Rehman, the art, costume, camera casting and various other departments in addition to the production and marketing team that were responsible for advertising the film and increasing the number of viewers are all examples that “Slumdog Millionaire” is a part of the culture production system.
This film is a part of the cultural production system because it deals with the aspect of culture in India, that gives the whole world an idea about the diversity in India. Starting from slums to millionaires, people from the underworld and good people, the portrayal of religious and social practices of an average Indian etc are all examples of what made Slumdog Millionaire a part of the cultural production process.
The three components of the cultural production process in this respect are:
The cultural gatekeepers who were responsible for filtering the information down the chain in this case were the following: