And did Dev Patel usually get his way?
Danny Boyle: "We’d come to some kind of agreement at some point on some way. But I’m glad he did. When I look back at it when I edited it, you know, the truthfulness of his performance is absolute and that's what he was going on. He wouldn't do things, I’d want him to engineer things because you're against the time and you know what’ll work and you think, 'If you'd just do this here it’ll…,' you know? And he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't go for easy options. He’d always look for the real emotion that he could find."
How are you handling the awards buzz? Isn’t it nice?
Danny Boyle: [Laughing] "Yes, of course it is. It’s like everybody dreams of stuff like this. Everybody’s lying if they say they don’t. You just know that, you know? It’s unbelievable for us because we… I mean a lot of films are made with, obviously, the award season in mind.
We weren’t. But to be in the season itself is phenomenally good for us. This is the time of year when you can get this kind of film visible. People take things very seriously. They're looking for stuff that challenges the conventional rest of the year, either in terms of subject matter or in terms of actors taking risks with performances or whatever. So it's a great season to be included in. I mean I think we’ll be at the back of the hall waving ultimately, but still it's lovely to be there. Yes, absolutely."
What was it like doing this movie outside the studio system? Was there a studio onboard when you filmed?
Danny Boyle: "We raised the money from Pathé in Europe and from Warner Independent in America in combination. And then what happened is that Warner Independent was closed down by Warner Brothers, they just closed them so we lost our distributor in North America, which is a big a disaster as you can get really. But, again, in the way that these things happen with this film, is that you're looking at disaster and then suddenly, you keep calm, you don’t fly into a homicidal rage…which is one way you can go. You keep calm and suddenly Fox Searchlight appeared. They bought the film and they are the perfect company to distribute a difficult film like this. And suddenly you're here in San Diego doing interviews and it’s like absolutely extraordinary."
"It’s been like that throughout the whole time on the film. And it’s justified taking that approach, which is very respectful of the way that India views the world and itself, you know? Which is that you embrace contradictions, you don’t fight them, you don’t try and narrow them, you totally embrace them as part of the whole deal. Disaster and success are arm in arm all the time. And it’s true, it’s absolutely true. It's the only way to handle being there because they are. You've got the blinding of a kid in one minute and then a Bollywood dance the next. And that's not me - that’s that city. They're side by side like that."
What's the biggest thing you took away from filming there that has affected you and your outlook on life?
Danny Boyle: "Working in the slums, you realize the people are the same all the world over. They're decent people who want a good upbringing for their family. They want to keep in work. They want to have a bit of dignity about their own lives. That's all they want, you know? And you always misjudge them because we use the word very pejoratively and the squalor looks terrible sometimes. But actually the people themselves, we’d be exactly the same if we lived there. We’d be lucky to be as decent and as respectful as they are of everything. So I had a blast. I really, really enjoyed it. They had to drag me away at the end."
Would you do another movie there?
Danny Boyle: "I’d love to do a thriller there. It’s an amazing place for a thriller. The police are corrupt - it’s a cash society because the bureaucracy, court cases take 25 years to come to court. I mean literally 25 years."
So basically there is no court system.
Danny Boyle: "There is a court system but it runs in a parallel universe to everything else.
It’s a cash society. It’s staggering wealth at the moment, staggering, and staggering poverty. The city’s run by gangsters who don’t live there. They live in Dubai because they've been exiled by the politicians and told they can keep running the city but not from inside the city. So they have these like lieutenants now, these lieutenants who are running it from inside the city. And above all this you have this Bollywood deity, this kind of like royalty of stars who the gangsters worship and the politicians worship and the people worship."
That's so bizarre.
Danny Boyle: "It’s such a bizarre world and you think for a thriller, a dark night thriller would just be amazing really. So I’d love to go back at some point, yes."
