Swarup not happy with change in book title

Nachiketa Narayan
Allahabad, Feb 27 (PTI) As the euphoria over the best
film at the Oscars, "Slumdog Millionaire", begins to settle
down, author Vikas Swarup, whose novel was drawn upon for the
celluloid tale, said he is "not very happy" over the title of
the book losing its identity to the celebrated but
controversial name of the movie.
"I was not very happy that the title of the book was
changed to Slumdog Millionaire," Swarup, Deputy High
Commissioner to South Africa, told PTI in an email interview.
He was replying to a query about his novel "Q and A",
which had won acclaim even before British director Danny Boyle
chose it as the theme for his celluloid venture, now being
sold in the market under the title "Slumdog Millionaire" with
the movie's photographs splashed on the covers to draw
attention.
Swarup said when he enquired about the change in the
book's title, he was told "this is the norm in a book-film
tie, which is targeted mainly at people who have not heard of
the book and come to the book only after seeing the film".
However, Swarup said he did not rue the change in the
book's title as long as the storyline, revolving around a
gritty slumdweller who is orphaned in his early childhood but
goes on to achieve success surmounting all odds, was not
altered in the book's new edition.
"I console myself with the fact that the story is
still the same. Even if it reaches the reader through a
different title, at least it reaches. And that is what is
important," he said.
As a writer, said Swarup, his first and foremost
concern was that more and more people get to read his novel.
The book had won South Africa's Exclusive Books Boeke
Prize in 2006, the Prix Grand Public at the Paris Book Fair in
2007 and was also short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers'
Prize in the Best First Book category. PTI