Slumdog Millionaire w/ Aneesh Chaganty
“Despite the exploitation you could critique it on today, when Slumdog Millionaire first came out it didn’t feel that way. People genuinely loved the movie.” —Aneesh Chaganty
Aneesh Chaganty and Kiera Allen on the set of Run
To kick off Season 3 of Technicolor Theatre podcast, Aditya is joined by Aneesh Chaganty, the director of the new Hulu film Run, to talk about their experiences with India, telling stories about communities other than your own, and the divisive legacy of 2008's Slumdog Millionaire.
Aneesh Chaganty is a writer and director whose 2-minute short film Seeds became an internet sensation after garnering a million YouTube views in 24 hours. Following its success, Aneesh was recruited by Google to develop and direct commercials as part of the Google 5, a team of five young creatives from around the world helping shape the Google brand from New York City. His work has been viewed more than 21 million times online and aired on primetime TV.
Aneesh is a recipient of the prestigious Future of Storytelling Fellowship, awarded to only five young creatives around the globe “who have demonstrated a fearlessness to tell stories in unconventional ways” and whose works “will be instrumental in shaping the future of storytelling.”
Most recently, he co-wrote and directed Searching (2018). Starring John Cho and Debra Messing, the film premiered opening weekend at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize before being released worldwide by Sony Pictures in the summer of 2018. His newest feature, the thriller he co-wrote called Run which stars Kiera Allen and Sarah Paulson, is streaming now on Hulu.
Read our reviews of Aneesh’s films Searching (here) and Run (here). You can find Aneesh on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Twitter.