‘Slumdog’ author was inspired by opportunity, solitude
PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) — Vikas Swarup was far from the poverty of Mumbai when he wrote “Slumdog Millionaire,” the book that has now become an award-winning movie and Academy Award nominee.
Vikas Swarup says he was inspired by the idea of an underdog coming out on top.
As a high-ranking Indian diplomat, his day job requires him to think about international relations, not the grit of survival in a teeming inner city.
But maybe his heart was in his homeland when he took his first stab at writing fiction with the story of an uneducated slum dweller who wins millions of rupees on a television quiz show.
He wrote the novel in 2003, while finishing an overseas posting before heading to New Delhi.
“My wife and children had already left for India. So I was two months alone in London,” Swarup said in an interview at the official residence of his current job as India’s Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa.
“There was no comfort, but more importantly there were no distractions. That’s why I wrote this book, almost in a frenzy. The idea was bubbling in my head.”
Swarup said he was inspired by the idea of an underdog coming out on top.
‘Slumdog’ author was inspired by opportunity, solitude – CNN.com.
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Tags: Children, civil rights, film, global, multicultural, Social History, world
