Baftas 2009: Slumdog Millionaire loved everywhere but India

Slumdog Millionaire has failed to win over moviegoers in the country it celebrates - India - despite sweeping the board at the Baftas and being odds-on for victory at the Oscars. While film fans the world over have fallen for the charms of Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches tale, Indian audiences are less enamoured.

The film opened there on January 23 amid much hype and took $2.2 million its opening weekend - a decent enough figure, but barely a third of the takings of the top-grossing film, a mediocre horror movie called Raaz: The Mystery Continues.

By last week, takings were down by 70 per cent, according to industry magazine Variety, which called it "a respectable accomplishment but well below the performances of Bollywood hits."

Distributor Fox Searchlight professed itself happy with figures for the film, which was initially released on just 350 screens.

Industry watchers blame its lacklustre performance on confusion over its title - the term 'slumdog' is not widely used - the mix of Hindi and English dialogue, and the easy availability of pirated copies.