Fox Preps “Slumdog Idol”
Slumdog Millionaire is proving to be a success story for Fox Searchlight, after four Golden Globe wins and a strong expectation of an Oscar sweep. Fox’s television division is quick to seize the opportunity, with a new American Idol spin-off inspired by the movie skedded for this Fall.
The new show, titled Slumdog Idol, takes the singing competition to the slums of Mumbai, looking for a young hopeful who can sing his or her way out of the poorhouse.
Auditions are already being scheduled for this May, with an expected turnout in the tens of thousands due to promise of free meals.
Notorious American Idol judge Simon Cowell is expected to be a judge at least for its first year, with the other two unnamed judges still in negotiation stages. Concerns are high, however, that Cowell’s infamous insults might be too much for the poverty-stricken contestants. Social activist Abbie von Horton has formed a movement in Mumbai to protest the new show.
“You know that this big American network is just going to come in here and demolish the precious souls of the Indian slumdogs,” says von Horton, a 26-year-old East Asian Studies major from Princeton who is on her third “spiritual voyage” to India.
“Who are we to just let Simon Cowell insult these slumdogs like that?” she adds. “So what if some of them don’t know how to sing? They’re poor and uneducated and they don’t know anything about good music. It’s what makes them authentic slumdogs. That’s what makes them proud Indians. It’s just typical disgusting American culture to invade and ruin everything that’s pure.”
Von Horton’s father is a major shareholder at Fox, but denies that the protest is her way of lashing out at her conservative and totally close-minded parents.
The real question remains: is America ready for an idol who’s not at all American? The producers seem to think so.
“Look at Sanjaya’s popularity, and you’ll see that America is an extremely advanced country,” says Idol creator Simon Fuller. “Now look at the popularity of Slumdog Millionaire. Quite obvious to me, really, that America–the whole world, really–wants to see that inspirational story. It’s very fit to be poor and Indian right now, I can tell you that much!”
Asked to comment, Slumdog director Danny Boyle replied with multiple frowns.
