Slum Dog Millionaire is a true adaptation of the reality of the slums of Dharavi, in the heart of Bombay. There is nothing subtle about Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in the world. The sights, smells and sounds coming out of Asia’s biggest slum are in your face. So are the numbers. The 530-acre land produces 200,000 wallets, handbags and briefcases every year. There are 1000 garment-making workshops employing 40,000 people and the 1000 pottery units have an annual turnover of around US$4 million.
Dharavi is also nothing if not enterprising; entrepreneurship sprouts on the roadside and developing inside tine sheds that can barely hold three grown-ups. Money is made if there is an opportunity to make it and openings are created and expanded. And each section has a guru, an individual who arrived here with dreams in his eyes and the shaped a world out of those dreams.
