The British film Slumdog Millionaire has made a bigger than expected splash in the UK following its success in the United States.

The film won four prestigious Golden Globe awards last week at a ceremony in Los Angeles. Bollywood composer AR Rahman got the biggest cheer of the night with an award for Best Original Score. He became the first Indian to win a Golden Globe.

Slumdog Millionaire also scooped up awards for Best Drama, Best Director (Danny Boyle) and Best Screenplay. The Globe wins also make it more likely that it win an award at the upcoming Oscars.

“Your mad, pulsating affection for our film is much appreciated. Really, deeply appreciated. We never expected to be here,” said Danny Boyle while accepting his award.

Starring young British Asian actor Dev Patel, the film features him as an orphan boy who ends up on a quiz show and answers all the questions, to the surprise and annoyance of the programme’s producers. While trying to reunite with a lost love from his childhood, he also has to evade pursuers who want to find out how he answered the questions.

In Britain the film beat all competition to become the top grossing film over the weekend. It took £1.83m, just a slither ahead of Role Models and Bride Wars, in one of the best ever openings for a film with significant amounts of foreign language dialogue.

Industry watchers also said it attracted a broad base of viewers, reaching older and upscale audiences not attracted by its rivals.

It is now leading the London Evening Standard’s film awards shortlist, with three nominations. The winners of the awards, which have been handed out since 1973, will be announced on 2 February.

It will now be closely watched in India, where it releases on 23rd January. The Indian media has already been abuzz on the back of AR Rahman’s win at the Golden Globes. A Hindustan Times headline this week stated: ‘Indian tale catches global fancy’.

The two lead stars, Dev Patel and Indian actress Freida Pinto, are planning to travel to India for the premiere, accompanied by Boyle.

Slumdog Millionaire is also expected to be nominated at the Baftas, announced on Thursday.

It was adapted from former Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A.