Friday, 25th September 2009. I was on the train back to Manchester to see my family and take part in some festival celebrations. I had a window seat with a table on the Virgin train to Manchester. Ideal as I was going to have a play on my laptop. The coffee shop on the train was just in front of me and occasionally I looked up. Someone walked towards the shop and I caught his back… He looked familiar.
On his return I caught a glimpse and it was Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire. No one seemed to recognise him but I remember meeting him at a preview of Slumdog before it achieved unprecedented acclaim in the media. I went over and introduced myself to Boyle who was on his black Apple MacBook. He must have been a little startled to have a random guy on the train approach him! I spoke to him about the success of Slumdog and he said it was amazing that it achieved so much – ‘you never know..’. I asked when he was going back to India and that he would do so in 3 weeks time to work on some projects. From interviews I have seen on TV I feel he has built up a great admiration for India. He asked me what I do, and generally it was nice to meet such a great personality from Greater Manchester! I told him to read up on my blog for the unbiased ‘amit patel’ review of slumdog millionaire which I wrote after I watched at the preview before it was released and shown to the world…
https://theampatel.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/slumdog-millionaire-preview-screening-8th-december-08/
Danny if you are reading this it would be great to hear back from you! :)