Three-Worlds Theory Chutney: Oliver Twist, Q&A and the Curious Case of Slumdog Millionaire
This concluding chapter discusses Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire as both an adaptation of Oliver Twistand—along with Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of The English Patient (1996)—the most famous example of a postcolonial novel reabsorbed into a global imperial context. Excising Vikas Swarup’s subversive rewriting of Oliver Twist in his source text, Q&A, Boyle’s film streamlines the narrative into Hollywood genres accented with Bollywood conventions while presenting India as a nation of others, far removed from the ramifications of British imperialism and benefiting from the structures of the globalized world such as the transnational quiz show that fuels its lead’s rise from the slums. Through examinations of Swarup’s novel and Boyle’s film, this chapter demonstrates the importance of interfidelity to the adaptation process, especially as Hollywood and other national film industries operate under an ever evolving globalized business model that controls representations of postcolonial nations.