Toastmaster speech #5 - From Altar to Oscar

Banu Athaiya, Satyajith Ray, Rasool Pookuty, A R Rahman and Gulzar what’s the similarity between these 5?

Who directed the movie which won Oscar for Russool pookuty, A R Rahman and Gulzar?

Good evening toastmasters, respected evaluators and guests.  I am going to speak about the director who directed this movie.  Danny Boyle.

Danny Boyle was born on 20 October 1956 in Manchester.  He was from an Irish family.  And his parents were strong catholic believers.   During one of his interview he informed.

“It was very strict catholic family, and I was altar boy for around 8 years.  I was supposed to be a priest. “

When he was 14 years old, Boyle applied to transfer from local school to seminary, but was dissuaded doing so by a priest.

During his interview with “The Times” he said

“I was going to transfer from local school to seminary, but this priest father Conway takes me aside and told me, you don’t have to go.  I am not sure whether he was saving me from priesthood or saving priesthood from me”

After completing his education, he joined in “Join Stock Theater Company”.  But he didn’t stick on there, soon he realize his field is not acting rather it’s directing.

In 1980 he started working in Television, and started directing and producing some programs.  For around 15 years he worked with BBC2.

Finally in 1995 he directed his first movie called “Shallow Grave” which was the most commercially successful film in Briton during that period. 

When he started directing movies, he mentioned that “Priests and movie directors are doing same thing both of them tell people what to think, and I am not the only one started with altar and ended up in movies, manoj night shymalen and john woo does the same”.

Soon after the success of “Shallow Grave” Boyle directed his second movie it was “Train spotting”.  The second one was also a big hit.  Both these movies revitalized British cinema.

From 1995 to 2010 in duration of 15 years he directed only 8 movies, and all of them are considered as great classics or gems in world film industry. Let’s check what so special about his movies.

In each movie there will be a plot, and a human characteristic on which the movie will be concentrated. Let’s go with the movies.

1.       Shallow Grave

The plot was a house and character 3 friends, one day they get a huge amount of money from a gangster, the story revolves around how they try to hide this money and how greedy people can become.

2.       Train spotting

Plot was Scotland and story revolves around a group of insane drug addicts, who will do anything to get the ultimate pleasure of drugs.

3.       A life less ordinary

Plot, heaven and earth, true love is dying in this world and god send his angels to create love in humans

4.       The Beach

A secret beach outreach of civilization.   A group of people started living there and it tell you how selfish we can become to protect our secrecy.

5.       28 days later

Plot was London.  A scientific experiment went wrong and humans become blood sucking vampires.  A group of survivors trying to escape from London, they are able to find some shelters but soon they realize the humans are dangerous than vampires.

6.       Millions

A kid of the age 10 receives 10 million pounds from backyard of his house, in his dream an angel advice him to spend this money among poor.  The story revolves around his search for real poor people.

7.       Sunshine

A group of astronauts travelling to sun, their memory is haunting them and finally everyone is committing suicide.

8.       Slum dog millionaire

I think I don’t have to explain it.

He won around 32 international awards for his 8 movies.  And there are n numbers of other awards too.  He won his Oscar or Academy award for his 8^th movie Slum Dog millionaire, for this movie he won around 9 international awards in best director category.

For each movie he spent years and he put 100% dedication, while making films he act like a priest conducting holly mass.

His fans are eagerly waiting for his next project, which is expected to release in 2011.  He named it “127 hours” I wish all the best for him and hope it will keep stay him in Oscar nights.

Over to you toast master.