Yahoo! India reports that protests over the title of the film Slumdog Millionaire were held for the second day in a row in Mumbai. According to the article:
Slum dwellers in Bihar’s capital continued to protest Monday against Oscar-nominated film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, demanding the film’s makers remove the word dog from the title.
The protesters said their sensibilities had been offended by the title, which they said was abusive of people who live in slums. The protests continued for the second day, even as Republic Day was being celebrated.
A group of slum dwellers protested against the showing of the film at Ashok cinema hall Sunday, while some protesters tore down posters and banners of the film.
The Jhuggi Jhonpdi Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti (a group promoting the rights of slum dwellers) threatened to burn the film’s director Danny Boyle in effigy.
‘We will burn Danny Boyle in effigy in 56 slums here,’ Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, general secretary of the group said.
Kishori Das, another activist, said slum dwellers will continue to protest till the film’s director deletes the word dog from the title. ‘We are in touch with like-minded organisations across India to take the issue on a large scale to put pressure,’ Das said.
Many other people in India are very proud of the film and do not worry about the title or charges of exploitation. What are your feelings?
Ugh this is so stupid. It honestly irritates me that they have nothing better to do. Slumdog Millionaire is a source of pride and joy for the country and instead of basking in that they do things like this to get their 15 minutes of fame.
I certainly find their right to raise objections about the title very appropriate, if their sentiments are hurt.Slum doesnt get any minute of fame with that.It is certainly NOT stupid.Calling it stupid is very condescending and insensitive.
When we interact with a community , we need to understand and acknowledge their sensitivities.Danny Boyle might not be knowing it before he released it in India but he shud change becuz atleast now he knows it.
As far as Indian norms of communication are concerned , keep aside educated ones ; even uneducated Indians arent comfortable with any swear words which are simply colloquials in western life such as F* words or B! words , same stands for Dog.But Indians didnt give a call ever to westerners to stop doing that.We respect cultural norms.
Indians dint mind if slumdog is slumdog in USA , cuz it is respecting individuality.Having said that this objection in India is simply expecting a reciprocal respect of individuality for our culture and its norms.
We cant call our watchman as Watchdog….if one fancies doing so , might get a slap in answer.
Like everyone else ,even slum-guys have every right on earth to go by their own individual idea or norm of respectful reference .