Fails the Bechdel test
Slumdog Millionaire
2008. Directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan, written by Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's Kaun Banega Crorepati? (2000) (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out. At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love.
- Released
- 25 Dec 2008
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 8 / 10
- Metascore
- 84 / 100
- Awards
- Won 8 Oscars. 154 wins & 133 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Jamal 284 lines, man
- Prem 172 lines, man
- Salim 119 lines, man
- Latika 63 lines, woman
- Inspector 52 lines
- Maman 24 lines, man
- Arvind 18 lines, man
- Javed 17 lines, man
- Constable Srinivas 16 lines, man
- Jamal V/O 16 lines, man
Full cast, 89 people
- Dev Patel as Older Jamal
- Freida Pinto as Older Latika
- Madhur Mittal as Older Salim
- Anil Kapoor as Prem
- Mahesh Manjrekar as Javed
- Saurabh Shukla as Sergeant Srinivas
- Irrfan Khan as Police Inspector
- Ankur Vikal as Maman
- Tanay Chheda as Middle Jamal
- Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as Youngest Jamal
- Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as Middle Salim
- Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as Youngest Salim
- Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as Middle Latika
- Rubina Ali as Youngest Latika
- Raj Zutshi as Director
- Jeneva Talwar as Vision Mixer
- Sharib Hashmi as Prakash
- Mia Drake as Adele
- Shruti Seth as Call Centre Instructor
- Anjum Sharma as Operator
- Jira Banjara as Airport Security Guard
- Sheikh Wali as Airport Security Guard
- Sanchita Choudhary as Jamal's Mother
- Himanshu Tyagi as Mr Nanda
- Virendra Chatterjee as Slum Man
- Feroze Khan as Amitabh Bachchan
- Sunil Kumar Agrawal as Mr Chi
- Virender Kumar as Man on Fire
- Devesh Rawal as Blue Boy
- Tiger as Punnoose
- Chirag Parmar as Young Arvind
- Nazneen Shaikh as Baby
- Farzana Ansari as Latika's Friend
- Anupam Shyam as Old Villager
- Salim Chaus as Ticket Collector
- Harvinder Kaur as Family in Train
- Narendra Singh Bhati as Family in Train
- Satya Mudgal as Taj Mahal Guide
- Janet de Vigne as Ada / Mrs MacKintosh
- William Relton as Peter
- David Gilliam as Clark
- Kinder Singh as Driver
- Christine Matovich Singh as Opera Singer
- Thomas Lehmkuhl as Opera Singer
- Siddesh Patil as Older Arvind
- Najma Shaikh as Woman at Brothel
- Saeeda Shaikh as Woman at Brothel
- Alka Satpute as Woman at Brothel
- Tabassum Khan as Woman at Brothel
- Sitaram Panchal as Dance Teacher
- Nigel Caesar as Hotel Security Guard
- Ajit Pandey as Javed's Goon
- Kedar Thapar as Javed's Goon
- Amit Leonard as Javed's Goon
- Rajesh Kumar as Javed's Goon
- Sagar Ghopalkar as Javed's Goon
- Pradeep Solanki as Javed's Goon
- Abdul Hamid Shaikh as Javed's Goon
- Dheeraj Waghela as Javed's Goon
- Arfi Lamba as Bardi
- Taira Colah as Nasreen
- Varun Bagri as Call Centre Trainee
- Ankur Tewari as Dave
- Sarfaraz Khan as Autorickshaw Driver
- Syed Fazal Hussain as Autorickshaw Driver
- Umar Khan as Autorickshaw Driver
- Imran Hasnee as Javed's House Doorkeeper
- Homai Billimoria as KBC Contestant
- Udayan Baijal as Cricket Commentator
- Sandeep Kaul as Floor Manager
- Rufee Ahmed as Double for Irrfan Khan
- Rhea Lawyer as TV Reporter
- Deepali Dalvi as Dancer at Javed's Safehouse
- Anisha Nagar as Dancer at Javed's Safehouse
- Farrah Shaikh as Dancer at Javed's Safehouse
- Mamta Sharma as Dancer at Javed's Safehouse
- Neha M. Khatarawalla as Dancer at Javed's Safehouse
- Tanya Singh as Newsreader
- Anand Tiwari as Newsreader
- Faezeh Jalali as Newsreader
- Meghana Jhalani as Newsreader
- Rupali Mehra as Newsreader
- Anju Singh as Newsreader
- Saurabh Agarwal as Call Centre Manager
- Mark Boucher as Self - South African Cricketer (archive footage)
- Andre Nel as Self - South African Cricketer (archive footage)
- Yuvraj Singh as Self - Indian Cricketer (archive footage)
- Sachin Tendulkar as Self - Indian Cricketer (archive footage)
- Amitabh Bachchan as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 10% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 199
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | 0 | 7 |
| 6 to 10 | 0 | 22 |
| 11 to 15 | 3 | 8 |
| 16 to 20 | 0 | 33 |
| 21 to 25 | 1 | 15 |
| 26 to 30 | 3 | 25 |
| 31 to 35 | 6 | 26 |
| 36 to 40 | 1 | 40 |
| 41 to 45 | 0 | 22 |
| 46 to 50 | 2 | 12 |
| 51 to 55 | 4 | 19 |
| 56 to 60 | 4 | 20 |
| 61 to 65 | 1 | 13 |
| 66 to 70 | 1 | 17 |
| 71 to 75 | 0 | 21 |
| 76 to 80 | 0 | 14 |
| 81 to 85 | 6 | 22 |
| 86 to 90 | 0 | 24 |
| 91 to 95 | 0 | 38 |
| 96 to 100 | 8 | 38 |
| 101 to 105 | 2 | 5 |
| 106 to 110 | 16 | 27 |
| 111 to 115 | 0 | 18 |
| 116 to 120 | 0 | 16 |
| 121 to 125 | 10 | 51 |
| 126 to 130 | 0 | 12 |
| 131 to 135 | 0 | 26 |
| 136 to 140 | 1 | 5 |
| 141 to 145 | 23 | 44 |
| 146 to 150 | 0 | 11 |
| 151 to 155 | 0 | 31 |
| 156 to 160 | 0 | 14 |
| 161 to 165 | 3 | 21 |
| 166 to 170 | 0 | 3 |
| 171 to 175 | 0 | 2 |
| 176 to 180 | 1 | 4 |
| 181 to 185 | 0 | 15 |
| 186 to 190 | 3 | 6 |
| 191 to 195 | 4 | 22 |
| 196 to 199 | 2 | 6 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 12 are women's.
105 lines from women, 775 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 25 men in the cast. 4 women and 28 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 48 of 979.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 107 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 9% of the words (656), men 91% (6,886). Women have 12% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
91
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 32% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Danny Boyle (man)
- Written by
- Simon Beaufoy (man)
- From the novel by
- Vikas Swarup (man)
- Produced by
- Christian Colson (man)
- Shot by
- Anthony Dod Mantle (man)
- Edited by
- Chris Dickens (man)
- Music by
- A.R. Rahman (man)
- Production design by
- Mark Digby (man)
- Costumes by
- Suttirat Anne Larlarb (woman)
- Cast by
- Gail Stevens (woman), Loveleen Tandan (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 13 men, 5 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 2 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 24 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Freida Pinto 24
Men
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar 8, Tanay Chheda 12, Dev Patel 18, Madhur Mittal 21, Irrfan Khan 41, Saurabh Shukla 45, Mahesh Manjrekar 50, Anil Kapoor 51
Exhibit G: the money
It made 25.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $15 million
- Box office
- $378 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 199 scenes and 979 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
