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Bollywood and Indian culture is getting plenty of attention worldwide — thanks to the “Slumdog Millionaire” effect.

Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches romance about a poor Indian boy competing in a TV game show scooped eight Academy Awards earlier this year.

The film’s global box-office success brought its relatively unknown young stars on the global stage (with lead actress Freida Pinto slated to star in Woody Allen’s next project).

In the U.S., Bollywood’s arc of influence is creating thriving ancillary industries and garnering buzz for the likes of celebrity stylist Shalini Vadhera.

The Los Angeles entrepreneur, with her Global Goddess beauty products, sits atop a business that brings in a million dollars annually.

“I always feel like Obama winning for the African Americans is ‘Slumdog’ winning for us as Indian Americans and South Asians was fantastic,” she says.

“Because it created an awareness that there are a lot of talented South Asians out there whether it’s in the field of entertainment or fashion or beauty and it’s been wonderful for my business.”

Bollywood and its steady infiltration into Western culture is also boosting the profile of Rajan Shah, a self-taught player and music producer.

“The other day I was walking in Hollister and guess what music they were playing. They were playing ‘Jai Ho’ by A.R. Rahman,” says Shah, who is based in Washington D.C.

“And not just A.R. Rahman but bhangra music is everywhere now.”

What do you think? ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and Bollywood may have helped Indian culture make inroads into America, but is it just a temporary phase?

Dilshad Qureshi, Rubina’s aunt, is a happy woman. She got up at five this morning, finished her household chores and dressed up in her nicest clothes.

For this woman from a Mumbai slum, the Oscars were coming home.

I was there at Rubina’s (the youngest Latika in the film) cramped quarters, located in a slum by the Bandra train tracks, since six in the morning.

As I sat there, watching the Oscars on their 38-inch LCD TV, I wondered if it all seemed a little incongruous.

An eight-year-old girl, who doesn’t have running water in her house but has a LCD TV, who didn’t go to school some time back but got the chance to act in a film being made by an unknown foreigner, and who hasn’t travelled much of her country but got to go to the biggest movie event of the year.

And then, mentally I corrected myself. It wasn’t incongruous, it was the stuff dreams are made of; it was destiny.

Rubina and Azhar (the youngest Salim in the film) are actually living out the “Slumdog Millionaire” story — and making seemingly impossible dreams come true.

Let’s hope these kids can take some inspiration from the film they have worked in.

You had to be there to witness the jubilation in that room when Steven Spielberg announced “Slumdog Millionaire” as the best film.

Please join us in congratulating the entire team of “Slumdog Millionaire”, especially A. R. Rahman and Resul Pookutty.

His voice is soft over the phone, almost inaudible. He has just done a lot of interviews, and the tiredness in his voice is clear.

There are no niceties, no formal hello; instead he plunges straight into the agenda of the day — that’s a typical A. R. Rahman interview for you. The 43-year-old music composer is as humble as he is talented, as unaffected by success as he is successful.

“Unbelievable,” he said as he stood on the podium with a Golden Globe statuette in his hand. And it was. That an Indian composer could win such a coveted international honour for what is essentially such an Indian soundtrack — and do it all with a minimum of fuss, is a matter of pride for all Indians.

“If I win it, it will be a surprise,” he told the media the day he was leaving for Los Angeles. “But if I do win, I want to win for India.”

He didn’t forget to mention his country in his acceptance speech on Sunday, thanking the “one billion” people of India for the praise.

Those one billion will now be egging him on for even greater heights — don’t forget, the Oscars are just a little over a month away, and to see an Indian composer hold that coveted trophy in hand is something we could only have dreamed of — until now.

Join us in congratulating Rahman and wishing him all the best for the Oscars. Jai Ho!

Will India’s A.R.Rahman win an Oscar for Original Music Score in 2009?

Setting out to create a Bollywood blockbuster? Just make sure you have all the right ingredients — big budget, famous actors, foreign locales, fabulous music.

Wait, something’s missing — yes, the script.

Unfortunately for Subhash Ghai, the era of formula films has long gone and even the most ambitious project can’t afford to take it easy in the writing department.

And that’s where “Yuvvraaj”, the 18th film by a director known as Bollywood’s ‘Showman’, fails despite liberal doses of Ghai’s trademark opulence and grandeur.

Essentially the story of three brothers, “Yuvvraaj” revolves around the free-for-all that ensues when a London-based billionaire dies, leaving behind his fortune to autistic son Gyanesh Yuvvraaj (Anil Kapoor).

It’s a bitter blow for estranged sibling Deven (Salman Khan), who has been struggling to make  ends meet as a chorus singer in a Prague orchestra. He also needs the moolah to impress sweetheart Anushka’s (Katrina Kaif) wealthy father who is not too happy about their relationship.

And so Deven trudges back to the Yuvvraaj family’s London mansion, from where he had been kicked out twelve years earlier. He finds it infested with his dead mother’s relatives, all eyeing a share in the family property.

Youngest brother Danish (Zayed Khan) is a reckless youngster, spending more time in casinos and clubs, coming to his senses only when his debts mount.

So while simpleton Gyanesh whiles away time throwing footballs in the living room, Deven and Danish become partners-in-crime, thinking of ways to wrest his riches. But will blood ties prove stronger than the lure of money?

By a happy coincidence, Gyanesh turns out to be a musical genius and is just the kind of singer cellist Anushka wants for her orchestra’s concert in Austria.

As “Yuvvraaj” moved inexorably towards its predictable climax, I couldn’t help but marvel at the exquisite vistas and grandiose concert halls of Prague and Austria — certainly more interesting than anything the film’s insipid dialogues could offer.

Not that the acting is impressive.

Both Salman and Zayed overact. Katrina Kaif pouts, dances and blithely plays the cello. As for Anil Kapoor, he does have his moments as the autistic savant but is still no match for Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 Hollywood film “Rain Man”. And the supporting characters end up as mere caricatures.

So is “Yuvvraaj” that bad? Well, if it were not for A R Rahman’s music, I would say yes.

Rahman breathes life into an otherwise tedious film, paving the way for a dazzling array of orchestra sequences inspired by Indian and Western classical music.

It’s perhaps the maestro’s best work since “Taal” in 1999, which was also a Subhash Ghai musical.

But “Yuvvraaj” falls way short of the symphony created for it and even the masked revellers and flamenco dancers that mysteriously appear in many a dance sequence can’t really salvage the film.