As the very first Freida Pinto fansite to do so, I have added DVD screencaptures of Slumdog Millionaire to the gallery! In her breakthrough – and BAFTA nominated – role, Freida plays ‘Latika’ in the eight-time Academy Award winning movie. She looks absolutely stunning throughout the whole movie, despite the black eye and scar, so be sure to check out all the screencaptures right away!

Slumdog Millionaire was released onto DVD ($29.98) and Bluray-Disc ($39.98) yesterday! Make sure you go out and buy a copy of this fantastic movie today. I definitely will, so expect screencaptures from the film and its extras very soon.

Extras will include a commentary by Director Danny Boyle and Actor Dev Patel, a second commentary by Producer Christian Colson and Writer Simon Beaufoy, a Slumdog Dreams: Danny Boyle & The Making of Slumdog Millionaire featurette, 12 deleted scenes, and a Slumdog Cutdown feature.

The Blu-ray release will include all of the above, plus a From Script To Screen: Toilet Scene feature, an Indian Short Film (“Manjha”), a Bombay Liquid Dance Music Video, and a digital copy.

Since Freida-news is slow at the moment, I thought I’d take the time to add more photos from the movie that made her one of this year’s biggest stars – Slumdog Millionaire. Several new production stills and a new picture from the promotional photoshoot have been added to the gallery, and many of the old photos have been released with HQ versions. Check them out by clicking on the previews below, as per usual.

In other Slumdog-news, the movie has now taken in over $200 million at the world-wide box office! Not too shabby from a film that cost about $15 million to make and was supposed to be released straight-to-DVD! It truly is “the little film that could, and did”!

Fox Home Entertainment has announced DVD ($29.98) and Blu-ray ($39.98) releases of Slumdog Millionaire for the 31st March.

Extras will include a commentary by Director Danny Boyle and Actor Dev Patel, a second commentary by Producer Christian Colson and Writer Simon Beaufoy, a Slumdog Dreams: Danny Boyle & The Making of Slumdog Millionaire featurette, 12 deleted scenes, and a Slumdog Cutdown feature.

The Blu-ray release will include all of the above, plus a From Script To Screen: Toilet Scene feature, an Indian Short Film (“Manjha”), a Bombay Liquid Dance Music Video, and a digital copy.

As soon as the movie is released, you can be sure to see sceencaptures of the movie and its extras here at Freida Pinto Fan!

A day after sweeping the Academy awards, Slumdog Millionaire producer Christian Colson is ensuring that the children featured in the film are not left to fight life’s battles on their own.

The producers are planning a stage musical of the eight-Oscar-winning film to raise funds for Mumbai’s slum kids.

A fund set up by the filmmakers has already generated close to Rs 3.6 crore for the children. And if plans for cover versions of Rahman’s songs came to fruition, the money raised could multiply many times over, he told The Times, London. The funds would be ploughed back into the slums where the movie was filmed.

Also, plans to safeguard the future of two children from the slums — Azharuddin Mohammed, 10, and nine-year-old Rubina Qureshi — who attended the Oscars  with six others from better off families, are being re-examined. He told The Times that producers wanted “something more professional” to be put in place.

“The profile of the film will remain high — we can’t assume attention on these children will drift away,” he said.

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I am yet to find a copy of Freida’s appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly earlier this morning (you got it? let me know here!). But as soon as I find one, I will add both screencaptures and a video of the interview! Keep checking back.

In the meantime, I’ve added eight new production stills from Slumdog Millionaire, as well as replaced some of the old ones with HQ versions! Thanks to Ally for the heads up. Freida looks stunning as Latika, don’t you think?

Slumdog Millionaire has taken home even more awards this week, as Simon Beaufoy received Best Adapted Screenplay at yesterday’s Writer’s Guild Awards. The movie also scooped three prizes at this year’s London Film Critics’ Circle Awards, held on February 5, walking off with Best British Film, Best British Director for Danny Boyle and Screenwriter of the Year for Simon Beaufoy.

Huge congrats to the cast and crew for the well-deserved accolades! Hopefully Slumdog’s winning streak will continue at tonight’s BAFTA Awards!

Bollyspice.com recently interviewed Freida about her experiences in the past six months, ever since Slumdog Millionaire premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s a up-close, great interview which I recommend all of you to read! Check out some tidbits from the interview below, and read the complete article here.

• On landing the role of Latika: It was through an open casting call in 2007, when casting director Loveleen Tandan happened to call various agencies. She was looking for her three main characters at different ages. Back then, I was hosting this travel show called Full Circle on Zee International and it was almost coming to an end. My manager told me that this is probably an audition that you would really be interested in going for, as it is a Danny Boyle film. That just blew me away. I was like, ah, there is no way it is a Danny Boyle film. I think you got the name wrong. She was like, no, I am absolutely sure. You should go in for this audition.

• On her favorite scene of the movie: In terms of performance, in terms of being a challenge, I think the kitchen scene would be my favorite scene. It took me a lot of effort actually to get there, because I remember shooting sometimes and just not feeling right. I was like, this is not right, this is just not going the right way. That was really difficult.

• On co-star Dev Patel: I think there could be no boy on this planet who could play that role. It had to be, it was meant, it was written for Dev. He has done complete justice to that part. The honesty and the integrity that the character Jamal has: Dev has that in real life as well. It really helped him translate that into his character.

• On winning “Best Cast” at the SAG Awards: Oh my God! WHAT WAS THAT? What was that? I woke up in the morning and I was like listen, I was convincing myself, telling myself, well, not convincing myself, because I pretty much thought I knew it, na? I woke and said see, you have swept every other award but this one is not ours, so just make your peace with it. There is no way you can beat Milk and Doubt and films like that.

Read the complete interview at Bollyspice.com!

I have added a couple of rare production stills (unfortunately in very small sizes, for now) as well as a picture from the promotional photoshoot for Slumdog Millionaire! As soon as I get the pictures in better quality, they will be replaced. Needless to say, Freida looks fantastic in every single photo. Is she even capable of taking a bad picture? Anyways, enjoy!

Fox Searchlight awards favorite Slumdog Millionaire was the darling of the weekend box office as it successfully opened nationwide for the first time in its run.

Buoyed by its 10 Oscar nominations, including one for best picture, Slumdog grossed an estimated $10.6 million from 1,411 runs for a per-location average of $7,477. Ticket sales were up 80%, while the film placed No. 5 overall. Total gross is $55.9 million in its 11th weekend.

Danny Boyle’s pic isn’t an easy sell considering it is set in India and is partly in Hindi. Yet the movie played strongly in markets across the country, including such locales as Columbia, S.C., and Butte, Mont.

“The film has exploded into the mainstream audience because of the Golden Globe Awards, the Academy nominations and now the Producers Guild of America best film award,” said Searchlight senior VP of distribution Sheila DeLoach.

Or, as an exec from a big studio said, “It has become the go-to film.”

Source: Variety