Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is big winner in Toronto
Danny Boyle wins Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award
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Sunday, 14, Sep 2008 12:45
British director Danny Boyle has won the People's Choice Award, the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival, for his work Slumdog Millionaire.
The Dev Patel-starring film, which charts a poor boy's rise to fortune from the Indian slums by going on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, is now being tipped for similar success at the Oscars after scooping the award.
Boyle originally hoped to employ an all-Bollywood cast for the production, but said such actors were too well-established or looked too glamorous to carry off the role of someone from a heavily impoverished background.
"It's a great underdog story," Boyle, 51, said.
"In Bollywood if you want to be a young actor breaking into the system, you have to go to the gym for six hours a day to bulk up. I needed a very average-looking guy."
Despite his comments, Boyle also cast Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, and emerging talent Freida Pinto.
Boyle has already directed several critically-acclaimed films in his career, including Shallow Grave and Trainspotting - both starring Hollywood favourite Ewan McGregor - and the gritty horror film 28 Days Later.