Slumdog Millionaire, the small film that made waves at the Oscars and won eight Academy Awards may never have been made. According to the latest reports the film made on a `modest` budget of $15 million was abandoned by its financier Warner Independent Pictures, a division of Warner Bros. Another film company came to the rescue of the film and it was eventually released in November last year to vie for awards in several competitions. Win it did and how!

Almost 50 years ago Khawaja Ahmad Abbas produced a low-budget film called Shehar aur Sapna with newcomers. Like Slumdog, Shehar aur Sapna was also a love story though heavily dominated by four lovable old men played by well-known and popular character actors of the time — David, Anwar Husain, Nana Palsikar and Manmohan Krishna. That Slumdog and Shehar aur Sapna both have the slums of Bombay (Mumbai) as their backdrop is only one of the similarities.

After Abbas lost heavily on his star-studded Char Dil Char Rahein with Raj Kapoor, Meena Kumari, Shammi Kapoor, Nimmi, Ajit, Kum Kum and Jairaj who were all well-known actors of the time, he decided not to make films with any stars, which made his next film a difficult financial proposition. No financer or distributor would touch it. Abbas wrote to the Film Finance Corporation (later baptised as National Film Development Corporation) for loan but the government body turned it down contemptuously, even though it was supposed to support parallel cinema and film ventures.

In order to save expenses much of the shooting of Shehar aur Sapna was done on location as studio charges were far beyond the producer`s reach. To further save on studio and staff time Abbas would make his young actors sit under his writing table to rehearse the dialogues so that they could have the feel of the crampiness inside a cemented pipe where the actual film was to be shot. But with all the economy measures adopted by the producer he still had to pay the staff — actors, technicians, music director, editor, director of photography, make-up man, etc. But where was the money to come from?

So a stratagem was worked out. All the 13 actors and technical staff, including the producer/director himself, became equal partners in the venture and would await payment when the film was released and the money started `pouring` in. They all agreed and the film was started in right earnest and finished in record time. Since such `small` star-less films do not find ready buyers, the producers (there were 13 of them now) decided to enter the film in the national film awards in the hope that a prize, any prize, may give the film the necessary impetus at the box-office.

But the film`s problems were still far from over. When the regional committee of western India did not send the film to the national selection committee at Delhi, their hopes were all but dashed. However, one member on the national panel who had seen a sneak preview of the film at Bombay said at the first meeting that Shehar aur Sapna should be called up for consideration and the regional committee had made a mistake by not sending this excellent film to the national committee. The film was seen by the senior panel who unanimously agreed that the film should receive the highest award — the President`s Gold Medal.

At the awards function held, as usual, at the Vigyan Bhawan all 13 producers could not go up to the dias to receive the award from the President. It was decided that while Abbas would go up on the stage on behalf of the others, the other 12 `producers` would stand up attired in spotlessly white clothes to signify their participation in the award-receiving ceremony.

While much of India, including the prime Minister have hailed the Oscars to Slumdog Millionaire and identified themselves with the award, the more pragmatic ones have rightly observed that this award will do nothing to improve the lot of the Indian slum dwellers in Dharavi, the world`s largest slum where the film was shot. Likewise, at the end of Shehar aur Sapna, the young couple who are ousted from their temporary hut that is pulled down to make way for the construction of a multi-storey building, are seen in a beautiful house, furnished and equipped inside a pipe. When the girl asks the boy “which shehar (city) is this” he responds “this is not a shehar but a sapna (dream).

In real life slum dwellers and all those who are condemned to sleep on footpaths or inside drain pipes dream of better times... and not just awards and honours.