London, Feb. 8: A. R. Rahman was the one to win the first Bafta for music on a rainy and cold night in London when Slumdog Millionaire swept the board, taking seven awards out of 11 nominations.

This puts the film on course to do well at the Oscars on February 22 in Los Angeles.

The omens were propitious for Rahman whose music was being played for the red carpet arrivals at the Royal Opera House.

Slumdog was named not just best British film, for which there is a category, but best film overall.

Danny Boyle was named best director; and Simon Beaufoy won for best adapted screenplay — he has turned Vikas Swarup’s novel, Q&A, into a world-beater.

Slumdog took three other Baftas — Resul Pookutty for sound; Anthony Dod Mantle for cinematography; Chris Dickens for editing.

The Indian contingent included Dev Patel, who plays Jamal Malik, the lead in Slumdog. He was nominated for best actor but did not win. Neither did Freida Pinto — she was the epitome of glamour in a cream Oscar de la Renta gown — who had been nominated for best supporting actress. But Dev and Freida presented the award for costume design.

The exultant Indian crowd included two other members of the cast — Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan.

It was decidedly a night for Indo-British collaboration, which knocked the best of Hollywood, represented by Brad Pitt and his wife, Angelina Jolie, into second place.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won three Baftas — for production design, make-up and hair, and special visual effects. Mickey Rourke won the leading actor award for The Reader; while best supporting actor went posthumously to Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight.

Kate Winslet, widely tipped to win best actress, did so for her role in The Reader, while Penelope Cruz won best supporting actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.