Let me start this rant by reminding everyone that I love SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. It sits at #5 on my Top Ten list for 2008, & it’s also one of our FF2 ’08 Twozies. So it’s certainly NOT my intention to do anything to either damage box office prospects for this wonderful film, or negatively impact the flow of international awards & accolades. That said, I’m still stunned & shocked that Loveleen Tandan was not co-nominated for a Best Director Oscar yesterday.
I’m a resolutely optimistic, “glass-half-full” kinda gal, so I truly believed the zeitgeist would prevail. But alas, while people all around the world cheered Barack Obama’s Inauguration on Tuesday, on Thursday it was back to business as usual in Hollywood: for the 78th time in 81 years, five guys became contenders for the ’09 Best Director Oscar. Say it isn’t so!!!
Try as she might to deflect attention now, Loveleen Tandan has been very honest about her contributions to SLUMDOG. And when asked face-to-face, Danny Boyle himself told me: “It would’ve been such a different, poorer film if she hadn’t been involved, and I take credit for that, of course! As I was casting with her, I realized, because I’m not a fool, that I needed her there every day.” So I’m asking you all to open your eyes & see what’s happening here: knowing that Loveleen Tandan was a critical part of SLUMDOG’s filmmaking & marketing phases, how can we all sit by & watch while she is totally ignored in the award phase?
Kudos to the journalists who have already followed up on this including John Jurgensen of the Wall Street Journal, Prairie Miller of WBAI, Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek, Melissa Silverstein of the Huffington Post, Amar Singh of London’s Evening Standard, Anita Singh of the UK Telegraph, & Sasha Stone of Awards Daily. I really, really think this is an important issue, & I genuinely believe that the more you know about this, the more you will agree!
