Danny Boyle: A director with penchant for unusual

Danny Boyle might be British but as the director of 'Slumdog Millionaire' he is the man who has put India on the Oscar map with his rags-to-riches flick on the life of a Mumbai street boy.

Danny Boyle might be British but as the director of 'Slumdog Millionaire' he is the man who has put India on the Oscar map with his rags-to-riches flick on the life of a Mumbai street boy.

HT Image

'Slumdog Millionaire', which in the director's own words "was meant to capture Mumbai's lust for life", has won Boyle an Oscar nomination for 'Best Director', besides winning nine other nominations.

The film tells the story of a poor orphan in the streets of Mumbai who triumphs on India's variant of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' The film has already won Boyle a Golden Globe for 'Best Director'.

Boyle whose previous works include films like 'Train Spotting' and 'The Beach', was born in 1956, in Radcliffe, into a working-class Irish Catholic family. His parents had wanted him to join the clergy but he decided against it much to the gain of the world of cinema.

Boyle who has always shown a penchant for unusual subjects began his career as a film director with the 1994 movie 'Shallow Grave' after spending more than a decade in the British theatre scene. The film was a psychological crime thriller which also marked the debut of actor Ewan McGregor.

It was 'Train Spotting', a film revolving around the life of a group of drug addicts in recession-hit England, which brought repute for Boyle. The film developed a cult following and has been ranked at the 10th spot by the British Film Institute in its list of Top 100 British films of all time.