Odds of Slumdog winning an Oscar

If experts are to be believed, critically acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire is at 2-7 odds of winning the prestigious Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture.

The film, which has won four Golden Globe Awards and has garnered 10 nominations at the Oscars, tracks the story of Jamal Malik, a dirt-poor orphan from the slums who astonishes India when he does well on the country's version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'

Indian music composer A R Rahman has been nominated for original score while director Danny Boyle is a nominee in Best Director category.

Damian Smee, film expert from William Hill, one of the largest bookmakers in the UK, has been compiling Oscar odds for 27 years and picks up the winner 'eight times out of ten'.

He said that Slumdog Millionaire is at 2-7 odds of winning the Oscars while The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is at 4-1 odds.

Boyle is at 4-9 odds of winning the Oscars for the Best Director compared to 7-2 for David Fincher, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, 8-1 for Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon, 8-1 for Stephen Daldry, The Reader, and 10-1 for Gus Van Sant, Milk.

Kate Winslet has 8-15 odds of winning the Best actress award for The Reader, while Anne Hathaway is at 8-15 odds of winning for Rachel Getting Married.

Angelina Jolie (Changeling) and Meryl Streep (Doubt) are at 8-1 odds of winning the gong.

Mickey Rourke's role as retired professional wrestler Randy in The Wrestler puts him at the highest odds of winning the Academy Award for Best Actor with 4-6 odds.

Brad Pitt has 14-1 odds of winning award for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, while Sean Penn is at 6-4 odds of winning the gong.

'The biggest prizes have never looked as settled as they do this year,' Times Online quoted a spokesman for the betting company as saying.

'There's normally at least two contenders for each award but this year the favourites are all nailed on,' he added.

A Book on Big B

The occasion was the release of Bachchanalia, a book on Amitabh Bachchan memorabilia, written by Bhawna Somaiya and published by Osian.

Audience tossed questions at AB who was there to announce the release of the book Bachchanalia . Bachchan spoke on everything from the state of Indian cinema to the much-acclaimed film Slumdog Millionnaire and AR Rahman’s numerous nominations at the Oscars.

“I am a bad reader,” Big B confessed at a point.

“ I think that we are very happy making the kind of films we have because we have to cater to the 1.2 billion people of this country. But I do believe that our creativity and our talent is not inferior to anyone else’s in the world,” said Bachchan senior.

With reference to the Oscar nominations announced recently, he quipped,” A R Rahman has won numerous nominations. We hope and pray that he wins lots of awards and make the nation proud.”

Bachchan’s visit generated a huge response from the public as each nook and corner leading to the Diggi Palace was jam packed with cars and two wheelers well three hours before the book launch. Just everyone wanted to grab a vantage point to be up close with the biggest living legend of Indian cinema,

The publishers announced that Amitabh Bachchan will autograph books that are bought from the stalls and there was a rush towards the Osian stall and in a matter of minutes 50 copies of the Rs 3,000 books were sold. It was Bachchan mania in full throttle !

Julia Roberts visits Taj Mahal

She came, she saw and was left mesmerised -- Hollywood diva Julia Roberts made an almost incognito visit to the Taj Mahal and succeeded to a great extent in her escape act from shutterbugs and journalists.

Wearing a scarf to hide her identity from the large number of fans and mediapersons who had gathered at the monument of love awaiting her visit yesterday, Julia behaved like an ordinary visitor preferring to walk towards the edifice from the main gateway on the sidewalk rather than the main platform running along the central vista.

Only a few journalists could recognise her though many had laid in wait for her and in vain scanned the road from Amar Vilas Hotel, where she was staying, to the Taj.

When she appeared at the Taj gate, it was almost dusk and she mingled with the crowd, avoiding the media and walking barefoot from the barrier to the marbled platform with her husband and a guide.

She reportedly asked the guide more questions on Mumtaj Mahal than on the Taj -- she was curious to know about the number of children Mumtaj had and how she died.


At the cenotaphe chamber, she showed interest in the marbled inlay work touching the surface to see how well the stones fitted in their grooves.

Inside the chamber, she heard the famed 15 seconds echo and walked around the marbel screen, peeking at the tomb of Shah Jahan and Mumtaj as no visits are now allowed inside the screen.

She also had a riverside view of the city from the northern terrace of the monument.

Shah Rukh: No Regrets to decline ‘Slumdog’

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was apparently the original choice for the role of quiz-master in Danny Boyle’s much acclaimed flick ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, says that the actor doesn’t regret his decision of turning down the offer. With ‘Slumdog’ having bagged as many as ten Oscar nominations, it was being assumed that Shah Rukh must not be too sure now, about the decision he had taken then.

When asked about his decision to turn down the role, the actor said, “Everything isn’t made for me alone. God has given me enough. I’d better be happy and contented.”

However, Shah Rukh has been all praise for Anil Kapoor and feels no hesitation in saying that he has done a fabulous job as the host of the game show.

Well, we believe it would not have been too hard for Shah Rukh to be satisfied with his decision, for the actor must have got used to it now after rejecting ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ out of many more in the past.