Quiz shows & Accolades: 'Slumdog Millionaire' author Vikas.

Quiz shows & Accolades: 'Slumdog Millionaire' author Vikas Swarup talks about his novel's cinematic journey

Tom Baker / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Yomiuri

Vikas Swarup's 2005 novel Q&A, about a young resident of Mumbai's vast Dharavi slum who somehow wins a fortune on a quiz show, became the basis of which of the following dramatic productions?

A. A prize-winning audiobook

B. A prize-winning radio play

C. A prize-winning movie

D. All of the above

Can't guess? Let the author himself supply the answer.

"All three have won the top prizes," Swarup beamingly told The Daily Yomiuri during a recent interview in Tokyo.

The audiobook, from Audio Editions, won the 2006 Audie for best abridged fiction from the Audio Publishers Association, and the BBC radio play took the 2008 gold award for drama in the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

But most people know Swarup's story by its film title--Slumdog Millionaire.

The movie, opening in Japan on Saturday, has accumulated a galaxy of honors, including 10 Academy Award nominations in nine categories, eight of which it won. (There were two nominations for best song.)

"I was there," Swarup said of this year's Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles. "I even managed to clamber onto the big stage when the final envelope was opened and Slumdog Millionaire was proclaimed the winner...It was an overpowering moment, really. A moment of supreme euphoria...Something which I created way back in 2003 became crowned as the best film in the world."

Despite this staggering success--and the recent publication of a second novel, a whodunit called Six Suspects--Swarup has not quit his day job. However, he has a day job that most aspiring novelists would envy. As a member of India's diplomatic corps, he has been posted to Britain, Ethiopia, Turkey and the …