The day after returning to Los Angeles, Ronan asked people to find a few episodes of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and took time out to watch them.

He wasn't interested in this variety show, but he once watched a movie about it, and it was still a very successful genre.

It was also one of the very few India-related movies Ronan watched when he was on the other side of the Pacific, and it left an extremely deep impression on him, just like Andy Lau's "Three Fools in Bollywood".

Netflix talks to the TV station about the licensing of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", which reminds Ronan of this work and the related news he once saw on the Internet.

If memory serves, the title of the film was "Slumdog Millionaire", which seemed to be a film about Indian society and life, but it was actually a typical American dream film.

Otherwise, it would not have been recognized like the Oscars, and won the best picture that I can't remember whether it was a certain Oscar in 2009 or 2010.

The time period that Ronan can remember is probably around 2010.

I still have the vague impression that I have seen it on some online news that "Slumdog Millionaire" is based on Indian literature, and the director is the one who filmed the famous "Trainspotting" by the British young man who died in the second middle school.

What the director's specific name is, Ronan doesn't remember.

After all, the other party is not like Michael Bay, James Cameron and Spielberg, who directed movies that are widely circulated and famous.

Ronan remembers that even many junior high school students knew about the name of the explosive shell at that time.

This one really blew up a world for himself.

The man who was born when Mars hit the Earth, lives up to his name.

As for that literary work, Ronan has not read it, and he only remembers one Indian writer, Rabindranath Tagore.

Since he thought of "Slumdog Millionaire", Ronan immediately called Connie, saying that she had read an Indian literary work related to "Who Can Be a Millionaire" some time ago, and forgot the specific name, and asked her to look it up immediately.

Thanks to Relativity's close cooperation with the Indian side, and the widespread use of English by the Indian cultural class, Connie quickly found a number of famous works in English.

After serving as Ronan's assistant for many years and also controlling a team of assistants, Connie has long been clear that there are some things that should not be asked.

Besides, anyone who can achieve great success will look weird in any one way or another.

Connie knows very well that Ronan and even the entire Relativity Entertainment attach great importance to adaptations of films, and original genre movies are less valued in comparison.

Every issue of the New York Times bestseller list, she would be delivered to Ronan's office on time.

In recent years, bestseller lists in English-speaking countries have also been collected by the assistant team and sent to Ronan's office.

Connie first read and summarized the relevant Indian literature collection, and soon found a copy, in which the protagonist participated in the Indian version of "Who Can Be a Millionaire".

It is also the only work related to Who Can Be a Millionaire.

Connie was very efficient, and the next afternoon after Ronan confessed, he saw an Indian copy in his office.

"It's called Q&A, and it's the work of Indian writer Vikas Swaloup, who is a diplomat. Connie briefly explained the basic situation: "It is not listed in the UK, and I asked someone from the Indian branch of Embassy Pictures to purchase it and mail it by air express. ”

Ronan nodded slightly, picked it up and looked at it: "Q&A?"

Connie continued: "This is the only Indian literary book found that is related to 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire', which was only published in India in the second half of last year, and was written in London when Vikas Swharup was posted to the UK on official duty. ”

She did her job very well: "Someone at Embassy Pictures privately inquired that Vikas Swalop was inspired by the cheating of British Army Major General Charles Ingham. ”

Ronan didn't know much about variety shows, and he hadn't heard of them at all, so he asked, "What kind of cheating incident?"

Connie clearly did her job: "Ingham was charged with cheating on the 2001 British TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a fine of 15,000 pounds, and was expelled from the military. ”

Ronan's heart moved, and his eyes fell on the "Q&A" in his hand, the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", the protagonist seems to be accused of cheating when he is about to win the grand prize.

"I see. Ronan said, "I'll take a look at the book first." ”

After Connie left the office, Ronan opened the cover and looked at it carefully, just like the middle and upper classes of India, everyone prides themselves on speaking English, and this book is also in English.

Although it is British English, there are some differences from American English, but for Ronan, there is no barrier.

Entirely from a first-person point of view, it tells the story of an orphan from Mumbai who won a huge prize of one billion rubles on the TV variety show "Millionaire", but everyone thinks he cheated.

The reason is simple, how can a slum kid be so knowledgeable? Just when the male protagonist is being brutally tortured, a beautiful female lawyer appears and rescues him.

So, the hero tells her about his magical experience, from orphanage to brothel, from train robber to beggar gang leader, every kind of suffering he has experienced has become the most valuable treasure.

The content described allows Ronan to see the plot that was once very similar to that movie, but far more complex and rich than the movie.

The former "Slumdog Millionaire" is just a bizarre exotic story for Ronan: a poor boy in the slum answers all the questions of a TV show correctly and wins money and beauty.

But in the book, there are more depictions of Indian society, culture, religion and other aspects, which at first glance seems to be more like a portrayal of Indian society.

Of course, whether it describes real Indian society or not, Ronan is not clear.

Ronan has been to India more than once, but he has only dealt with the wealthy class of India, and has not actually come into contact with the ordinary class of India.

For example, open defecation, such as a magical train, such as an airplane that always sticks down from the sky, such as the superbike show of Indian GIs at a military parade, and so on.

After Ronan read it carefully, he determined that the former "Slumdog Millionaire" was adapted from this book called "Questions and Answers".

However, in the past, less than 10% of the content of the book was filmed.

The adaptation of that film, with its retained framework, fully expresses the theme of being both a quiz contest and a test of human nature.

The Indian style and complex plot, character relationships, etc., which are carefully depicted, are basically simplified as much as possible.

This is undoubtedly a very clever approach, and neither the North American audience nor the British audience is not interested in the social form of India at all.

The most typical is the typical Hollywood-style happy ending of the film, where the poor boy holds all the money and beauty in his arms, which is a very typical Hollywood-style movie fairy tale.

Ronan determined that "Q&A" was the original book of "Slumdog Millionaire", and immediately asked Connie to collect more information, and at the same time transferred it to Robert Lee, so that the copyright and legal department could get the relevant film and television rights as soon as possible.

And it was not published in the United States, and if possible, even the rights outside of India were bought out.

This investment is nothing compared to the possible gains in the future.

The original book can provide the basis for the adaptation of the film, and the big sales of the film will promote the hot sales of the original book.

Embassy Pictures India made initial contact with the original author Vikas Swaloup, who was quite surprised that Hollywood could take a fancy to his work, and did not mean to hold the copyright and not sell it, and the $2 million adaptation license was not outrageous.

Ronan also got more information about it.

For example, the book's description of India's underclass society seems very realistic, but the situation described by Vikas Swalop, who is a typical high-caste, is not the same at all.

Vikas Swalop came from an excellent background, admits that the purpose of his creation is not to criticize social reality, and he is far from being a poor person, and he has not really understood and investigated the living conditions of the vast number of extremely poor classes in India, and even "I don't know if there is really a flower head who blinds the eyes of orphans in order to facilitate begging", but writes these contents based on imagination and rumors.

None of this prevents Relativity Entertainment from buying the rights, and for Hollywood movies and American audiences, who cares what India is really like?

As long as the film can create commercial value and bring profits, whether the content in it is real or reflects the social reality of other countries, Hollywood will not consider it at all.

There are countless Hollywood movies that fictionalize the reality of other countries.

The situation in other countries in Hollywood movies is basically what most American audiences imagine to be, or what commercial interests need to portray Hollywood.

Robert Lee had already negotiated the rights to World War Z with Max Brooks, and since Vikas Swarup had a strong interest in selling the film and television rights, he simply sent someone to India to discuss the rights to Q&A.

He himself has recently been in contact with Universal Pictures in Los Angeles.

Since Relativity Entertainment obtained the rights to the "Fast and Furious" series from Universal Pictures, taking advantage of the Universal Pictures deal between Vivendi and NBC, Robert Lee has communicated with Ronan many times, especially after the success of "Batman: Time to War" co-produced by Shahai Entertainment and Warner Bros., a new idea was born to promote the cooperation between Shahai Entertainment and Universal Pictures on film projects.