Amitabh Bachchan slams 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Actor Amitabh Bachchan on Wednesday said that Slumdog Millionaire received international recognition since it was "authored by an Indian and cinematically put together by a Westerner".

"It's just that the SM idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not," Bachchan wrote on his blog.

Big B, who is currently in France, wrote that fellow bloggers have complained that the film projects India as "Third World dirty underbelly developing nation".

He said if Slumdog Millionaire projects India as a third world dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations.

Big B wrote about his encounter with migrants and asylum seekers from nearby or distant countries begging at the Paris-Nord station.

"Conditions the world over are so similar. Perceptions differ, but the reality of life and existence, unchanged. Comments for the film, Slumdog Millionaire and the anger by some on its contents, prompt me to say the above," Bachchan wrote.

Bachchan recalled that the "commercial escapist world of Indian cinema" has vociferously battled for years, on the attention paid and adulation given to legendary Satyajit Ray at all prestigious film festivals of the West and not a word of appreciation for the entertaining mass-oriented box office blockbusters that were being churned out from Mumbai.