Night Mumbai took Hollywood - Slumdog basks in Oscar glory

The young stars' eyes shone as they reeled off the list of parties they planned to attend: Elton's charity do, Prince's after-show gig, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Governor's Ball. For the cast of Slumdog Millionaire, the rags had truly become riches as they celebrated a near-sweep at the 2009 Academy Awards. "It feels unreal. This is the best day of my life, man," Madhur Mittal, who plays the wayward Salim, said at the party thrown by the film's US distributor, Fox Searchlight. "I come from India and I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be at the Oscars, much less be part of the movie that sweeps the Oscars." All around him, there were reminders of the distance between the film and its destination at the heart of Hollywood. Designer-clad starlets sipped glasses of "The Slumdog" cocktail, a mix of vodka, raspberries and lime not normally served on the streets of Mumbai. Close by, another, younger star of the film was sticking to Coca-Cola. "It's unbelievable," said eight-year-old Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who plays the youngest Jamal. "I never thought I would get an Oscar. Daniel [Danny Boyle] told us: 'If you work hard, the Oscar will come to you.' And it came." At the Governor's Ball, the first stop in the post-Oscar celebrity waltz, his young co-star looked up from his video game console to weigh up the Oscar statuette. "Danny! This is so big! This is very heavy!" Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, who plays the youngest Salim, exclaimed to the film's director. The not unexpected victory of Slumdog, which approached some sort of British Oscar record, winning one more Academy award than Shakespeare In Love but failing to match the nine given to The English Patient, threw up a succession of unlikely moments. Making their way into the Kodak theatre in Hollywood, the film's stars subverted the norms of the celebrity ritual. Instead of preening and posturing, the young actors rushed about, gawping at the Hollywood royalty arrayed before them. Was that Meryl Streep? They rushed over and got her autograph. James Bond actor Daniel Craig? Another autograph in the book. "Oh my god," Mittal said later, "is that Adrien Brody?" For Tessa Ross, head of Film4, which produced the film, the lavish celebrations produced a different sensation. "I tripped on to the Fox party and smiled at a lot of people," she said. "Then I walked to the Vanity Fair party and did a circuit. All those beautiful people beautifully dressed, it made me feel shorter and older. I had a doughnut and left." Vanity Fair, an Oscar night tradition, returned to the fray this year after taking a break last year due to the screenwriter's strike. Amid all the glitz, the celebration attempted to make a nod to these recessionary times, offering its humble guests humble fare, including not only doughnuts but bagels, egg and bacon sandwiches and fastfood burgers. Best actress winner Kate Winslet had other things on her mind, namely pickled onions. "My mum won a pickled onion competition in her local pub before Christmas and that was a big deal," she said backstage after receiving her award. "They had her picture in the paper. Reading Evening Post - there's your next Winslet picture," she said, holding up her statuette. All was not celebration, however. Outside the theatre demonstrators opposed to gay marriage held up placards, drawing the ire of Sean Penn, who caused one of the night's minor surprises by winning the best actor award for his portrayal of gay rights icon Harvey Milk. "I'd tell them to turn in their hate card and find their better self," he said. "It's very sad in a way, because it's a demonstration of such emotional cowardice, to be so afraid of extending the same rights to your fellow man as you would want for yourself." By contrast, after weeks of controversy, India finally laid claim to Slumdog. News channels broadcasting live commentary of the Hollywood event called the presentation of the best film award a "victory for India". Celebrations erupted in the family homes of AR Rahman, the composer who took home two golden statuettes, and Resul Pookutty, the Bollywood sound engineer who was part of the winning sound mixing team. For the young stars the next step is one they are approaching with some trepidation. Dev Patel, the Londoner who plays the older Jamal, has signed on to star in Sixth Sense director M Night Shyamalan's next film, The Last Airbender. Patel's co-star, Mittal, is taking things more slowly. He is looking to buy a house in Los Angeles, and has spent his time rejecting offers. He is determined, he said, to "try not to do crap". There was almost universal praise for Slumdog Millionaire's director Danny Boyle for choosing to capture, in the words of Bollywood lyricist Gulzar, "the spirit of Mumbai. I am thrilled and happy ... Danny and Rahman helped to capture the spirit of this city," said the songwriter who penned the lyrics of Slumdog's winning song, Jai Ho.