Slumdog's Oscar chances threatened by exploitation charges

Even as Danny Boyle won the top prize from the Director’s Guild this weekend, confirming Slumdog Millionaire as the movie to beat at the Oscars, the director and distributor Fox Searchlight found themselves fighting off new reports of exploitation.

The charges, leveled in an article in the Daily Telegraph, attest the child actors were paid poorly for their work relative to the movie’s growing success. True to Hollywood form, the buzz from the article quickly weathered down to questions of whether the charges could hurt the movie’s status as a given for best picture.

As to that point, of course, it's impossible to know. But Boyle and a producer immediately denied the charges and pointed to arrangements for health care and education made for the children. “Since putting these arrangements in place more than 12 months ago, we have never sought to publicize them, and we are doing so now only in response to the questions raised by the press,” the pair said in a statement backed up by Fox Searchlight and Pathé.

The reports about the children’s pay—which the Telegraph claimed came from the kids’ parents—only added to a chorus of bad press that began when the movie opened in India to protests from activists who objected to its title, among other things.

Boyle has made appearances, including one on The Tonight Show Monday night, designed to further counter the claims. As Variety points out, the episode underlines the perils of front-runner status in the awards season, as the producers of Brokeback Mountain can attest. Even so, for now, Slumdog still looks as if it’s set to dominate once more when the Oscars air Feb. 22.

Related links:
News: Screen Actors Guild Awards go (mostly) to season favorites
News: Slumdog Millionaire owns 66th Golden Globes
Feature: Catching Up With... Danny Boyle

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