Cinemagoers tired of films where brand-name drinks creep artfully into shot or actors ostentatiously check their expensive watches will be relieved to hear that product placement has its limits.

Danny Boyle - the director of Slumdog Millionaire, which was shown last night at the closing gala of The Times BFI London Film Festival – told The Times that there was such a thing as product displacement.

Mercedes-Benz and another multinational insisted that their logos be removed from scenes in the film because they did not want to be associated with a Bombay slum, he said.

The car manufacturer and a well-known soft drinks company believed that their brands would be sullied if their products were shown in one of Bombay’s shantytowns.

The move could backfire, as the uplifting tale of a poor boy who reaches the final of India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? is tipped to be the surprise hit of the year, and a possible Oscar contender.

Boyle made his name internationally with Trainspotting, which opened with Ewan McGregor being chased through the streets of Edinburgh to the sound of Iggy Pop.

Five minutes into Slumdog Millionaire there is an equally exhilarating chase in which policemen pursue a crowd of urchin children through one of Indian’s largest slums. The scene is a riot of colour and adrenalin until the children come to a brief halt in front of a white saloon car containing a sinister figure in dark glasses, later revealed to be the area’s biggest gangster.

Speaking after showing the scene at a Festival talk, Boyle said: “The [thing you did not see] was the Mercedes logo on that car. We had to take that off because Mercedes don’t want to be associated with being in a slum.

“We wanted to use a Mercedes because . . . this guy, this gangster would drive a Mercedes . . . but if you use Mercedes then clearly you have to get permission, and we asked for their permission and they refused it.”

Mercedes was apparently happy for its logo to appear on the gangster’s car when it was parked outside his mansion and on a car hired by wealthy American tourists.

The film-makers also had to go to absurd lengths to disguise the logo of a global drinks conglomerate, Boyle said.

“There is a scene where the kids are on a rubbish dump and they get offered these bottles of, er, popular fizzy drink. Not only were we not allowed to use their name, basically we had to paint over the label on the bottle as well. So we ended up paying tens of thousands of pounds painting out these symbols, which are meant to unite the world, aren’t they? I’d better not say any more about that or I’ll get in trouble.”

Graham Bednash, who runs the creative arm of MindShare, one of the biggest media companies in the world, said: “Next we’ll have brands saying they don’t want to be in EastEnders because they don’t want to be associated with people who shout.”

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