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Slumdog Millionaire: Music from the Motion Picture

Slumdog Millionaire: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album of the British drama film of the same name, directed by Danny Boyle. The original score and songs were composed by A. R. Rahman, who planned the score in two months and completed it in 20 days, a far shorter time period than usual.

The soundtrack won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Music Score and the other for Best Original Song for "Jai Ho". The soundtrack has also won two Grammy Awards, one for the album itself and another for the song "Jai Ho". The latter song would be reworked by Ron Fair and The Pussycat Dolls into an English language adaptation "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" which would go on to become an international hit for the group.

The soundtrack sold over two million units worldwide.

Development

Rahman has stated that he was aiming for "mixing modern India and the old India" with the music, but that the film and soundtrack "isn’t about India or Indian culture. The story could happen anywhere." The film's director Danny Boyle, who "hated sentiment" and told Rahman "Never put a cello in my film", wanted a "pulsey" score. Rahman appreciated that Boyle liked how Indian films mix music, saying the director wanted "edgy, upfront" music that did not suppress sound. Composing pieces to fit the images, he noted: "There’s not many cues in the film. Usually a big film has 130 cues. This had just seventeen or eighteen: the end credits, beginning credits." Describing the music as one of the parts he liked most in the film, Boyle wanted to include M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" from early on in production on the score, which appears along with an original track Rahman composed, "O...Saya," featuring the artist. M.I.A., who Rahman described as a "powerhouse" gave brief film notes on some scenes to Boyle upon request during editing. The track "Ringa Ringa" was done as a tribute to the famous Laxmikant–Pyarelal song "Choli Ke Peeche" from the 1993 movie Khalnayak. Rahman has attributed part of the success of the film soundtrack to Arulpragasam.

The soundtrack for the film was released on M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. label.

Chart performance

The soundtrack gained popularity after the performance of this movie on the Golden Globe Awards. It also rose up the Billboard 200 albums chart rising from 56 to 16 for the issue of 31 January 2009, later peaking at #4 on the chart. For the issue of 7 March 2009, the album again rebounded from 48 to 22 by selling 21,000 copies (a 38% rise), spurred by sales due to the Oscar win at the 81st Academy Awards. As of April 2009, the soundtrack has sold 236,000 copies in United States.

Track listing

^*Nominated for Best Original Song at Academy Awards
^**Winner of Best Original Song at Academy Awards

^#1written by Mathangi Arulpragasam, Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Wesley Pentz, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer

^#2previously used as a background track in Azhagiya Thamizh Magan (2007, Tamil film) with different instrumentation and no vocals

^#3composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, lyrics by Javed Akhtar; from the album Don: The Chase Begins Again

Not in the soundtrack

Other music featured in the film include:

Salim's mobile phone ringtone – adapted from theme music to Swades.
Opera performance at the Taj Mahal – "Che farò senza Euridice?" from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.
"Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" – Keith Strachan & Matthew Strachan.
"Great DJ" by The Ting Tings featured in the trailer.