Ismail and his family have already rebuilt their family home
The child stars of the movie Slumdog Millionaire have continued to make headlines long after the movie has won its Oscars and appeared on shelves in video stores. The parents of the children claimed that they were not adequately compensated for their progeny’s work on the film, although producers and directors claimed to have bought apartments for them and made arrangements for the kiddos’ education. Then, there were allegations that the father of the young female star, Rubina Ali, had tried to sell her to a few different parties.
In the latest chapter in the ongoing tragedy of Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail’s lives, their ramshackle homes– shanties made from scavenged refuse– were demolished by the Mumbai civic authorities in a campaign to rid the city of such illegal dwellings.
Ironically, it may have been the film Slumdog Millionaire and the international interest it generated in the welfare of those living in the shanty towns that led the civic authorities, in typical bureaucratic fashion, to do something rash aimed at improving the city’s image. So, they decided to knock down some shanties, even though more than half of the city’s 18 million residents live in such dwellings.
Unfortunately, some of the houses they knocked down belonged to the child stars of the film. D’oh!
The state government is trying to dig itself out of this PR nightmare by offering new homes to the child stars and their families.
Two child actors from the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” have been offered new homes by the ruling Congress party of India’s western state of Maharashtra after their slum homes were torn down.
The offer on Saturday came days after a private trust said it was replacing the demolished shantytown dwellings of nine-year-old Rubina Ali and 11-year-old Azharuddin Ismail.
The flats offered by the Congress party in the western part of Mumbai cost around 400,000 rupees each (8,500 dollars) and were earmarked for low-income families.
The government has offered to pay for the flats, even though the producers of Slumdog claim to have set up a trust fund that has already bought a flat for Ismail and is currently funding the purchase of a flat for Ali. This slapdash solution also does nothing for the millions of other children whose houses were knocked down. What the hell is going on over there??
More than half? Wow – that is so sad. And appalling.
this is way old news
yeah, no it’s not. not that the government said it would buy them apartments.
For all the money that the movie has made, those kids ought to be living in a dang palace. Hopefully, they survive on the streets long enough to take advantage of the flat and the education. Is there some provision that they have to wait until they are adults? If not, they should probably let them go ahead and move in and get enrolled in school.
It is good to learn that finally the kids are going to get homes through the ruling Congress party of India’s western state of Maharashtra.
There have always been desperately poor people in the world. They seem to be more concentrated in certain geographical areas than in others. The problem is that we seem to have (in the US anyway) a little short attention span in how we confront the problem. When I was younger, it was Ethiopia and Live Aid. Then came Rwanda with the Tutsis and Hutus. Then Darfur. We seem to be moving on somewhat to the poor in India due to this movie. Does that mean that Ethiopia and Rwanda are now paradises? Doubt it.
I think we need to confront poverty as an ongoing multi-located problem. There have probably been children in India living in these types of places for decades if not centuries. And if we don’t work toward a global solution, they will still be living in such conditions long after we have moved on to another “cause of the moment”.
Hope the producers enjoyed their profits. What did they pay the kids with? Food?
If it doesn’t work out, I’ve got a moving box in my garage I’m willing to let them live in. As long as they’re willing to do yardwork, that is.