Should screenwriters ever decide to do a remake of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, they may want to consider moving the setting from India to the Philippines or Malaysia. When that film debuted in the U.S. in 2008, India was known as the most popular area for off-shore outsourcing of U.S. call center work. But that’s changing.

According to an article in the Washington Post, U.S. firms are now sending their call center work to other Asian countries because they have become more cost-effective than India. In turn, Indian call center companies are now doing the same. The article indicates that the reason is soaring costs of salaries and the general cost of doing business that have occurred in India over the past few years. It says this has cost the country its “label as the call-center capital of the world.”

As would be expected the country has not taken the changes lying down. It reportedly has been trying to recruit less-expensive call center staff from more rural areas to lower salary costs and has tried to shift the type of work it obtains to more “high-end” back-office work such as accounting, paralegal services and education.

India has, however, remained the location of choice for IT support and other high-end work, the article said.

Quoted in the article, Sujit Bakshi, president of the corporate affairs and business services group at Tech Mahindra, said “India absolutely cannot take the voice-based call-center business for granted anymore.” Tech Mahindra provides IT services and outsourcing and has a presence in both Philippines and Malaysia.

The Philippines appears to be where Indian call center companies are moving their work. Citing the National Association of Software and Service Companies, the Washington Post said 13 call center firms from India have established “large offices” in the Philippines where they have trained local talent to work for them.

Among the attractions of the Philippines for American companies that outsourcing call center work offshore is the Philippines’ population of English-speaking people in the labor pool and strong cultural ties to the U.S. “They think like Americans,” Bakshi reportedly said. The Washington Post said he also commented that Filipinos “drive on the right side of the road, sing American songs, watch American boxing and play basketball.”

Other countries that may see a boost in call center work as a result to the decline in India are Indonesia and Vietnam because of their English speaking population, although they reportedly do not have the infrastructure to support call center business right now, the Washington Post said. On the other hand, the Malaysian government is very supportive of call centers in it country, reportedly subsidizing a year of salaries for call center businesses and funding infrastructure.

Despite the negative turn of events for the call center business in India, some, like Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, still say India is the “hub” of outsourced call center work. There is even evidence that call centers are doing well due to business other Indian companies are outsourcing to them.

In other news, TMCnet reported, “If you approach call center outsourcing armed with the knowledge to do it correctly, not only can you elevate your brand’s stature, but you’ll most likely be able to do it more cost-effectively than if you kept your sales and service efforts in-house.”