Slumdog Millionaire highest grossing Indian film of 2008

Danny Boyle's acclaimed hit Slumdog Millionaire has reached $3.8 million at the North American box office surpassing the $3.4 million of the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai epic Jodhaa Akbar to become the highest grossing Indian movie of 2008. The Fox Searchlight release has done this after only three weeks in theaters while playing in only 49 locations. Released in February, Jodhaa Akbar played much wider in 125 theaters and earned its total gross over nine weeks. Slumdog Millionaire will continue to open in more theaters nationwide throughout the month of December and will see its box office gross continue to climb. Though financed in the U.K., the film's setting, story, and characters are all Indian. This past week has seen Slumdog Millionaire add to its impressive list of industry accolades. On November 30, it won three British Independent Film Awards for Best Film, Best Director, and the Most Promising Newcomer prize for 18-year-old actor Dev Patel. The song 'Paper Planes' by MIA which is featured on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack earned a prestigious Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year on December 3. And on the following day the film was named Best Picture of the Year by the National Board of Review which also honored it in two other categories – Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor for Patel and Best Adapted Screenplay (tie) for Simon Beaufoy. Hopefully it grabs a few Oscars.