Salaam Bombay!

Salaam Bombay!
Salaam Bombay! poster
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMira Nair
Written by
Screenplay bySooni Taraporevala
Story byMira Nair
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySandi Sissel
Edited byBarry Alexander Brown
Music byL. Subramaniam
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 11, 1988 (1988-05-11) (Cannes Film Festival)
  • September 13, 1988 (1988-09-13) (TIFF)
  • October 7, 1988 (1988-10-07) (Worldwide)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget$450,000[3]
Box officeest. $7.5 million (overseas)

Salaam Bombay! is a 1988 Indian Hindi-language drama film, directed, co-written and co-produced by Mira Nair. The screenwriter was Nair's creative collaborator Sooni Taraporevala. This was the first feature film directed by Nair. The film depicts the daily lives of children living in slums in Bombay (now Mumbai), India's largest city. It stars Shafiq Syed, Raghuvir Yadav, Anita Kanwar, Nana Patekar, Hansa Vithal and Chanda Sharma.

Nair's inspiration for the film came from the spirit of Bombay's street children and how they lived. Production began in early 1988, and the film was co-financed by the National Film Development Corporation of India. After being released worldwide on 6 October 1988, the film grossed an estimated $7.4 million at the overseas box office, against a production budget of only $450,000.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 61st Academy Awards, the film was India's second film submission to be so nominated. After its initial release on 11 May 1988 at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Salaam Bombay! achieved significant critical acclaim. It won the Caméra d'Or and Audience award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, the National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film and three awards at the Montreal World Film Festival. The film was on the list of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" by The New York Times.[4]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Arunachalam 2020, pp. 1063.
  2. ^ a b Foster 1997, pp. 119.
  3. ^ Foster 1997, pp. 117.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1000best was invoked but never defined (see the help page).