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Child star Azhar points out his family’s ‘house’ under a plastic sheet to a BBC reporter. Watch this shocking BBC News segment on YouTube.
The child stars of Oscar favorite Slumdog Millionaire have been invited to attend the Academy Awards in Hollywood this Sunday. 10 year-old Azharuddin Ismail and 9 year-old Rubina Ali still live in tiny shacks with their families in the slums of Mumbai. Slumdog director Danny Boyle has been criticized for only paying the children less than $3,000 each for their parts in the film, which has grossed over $151 million worldwide. Boyle counters that each child is now being sent to school at the film’s expense and that a trust is being set up for them which will allow their families to purchase homes once they finish school at the age of 18. Many, including Kaiser, liken that to modern day colonialism and say that it may be too late for their families to live dignified lives by that time. Little Azhar’s dad suffers from tuberculosis and is likely to pass if he continues to live almost in the open for those eight long years.
Boyle is likely trying to counter the controversy by inviting all of the 9 child stars of the film to the Oscars, but will he do the right thing for their families afterwards or just send them back to live in the slums until they finish school? They would have lived that way anyway, right?
Azhar’s dad, who has tuberculosis
MUMBAI, India — In the slums where they live, goats pick over piles of trash and men kneel in the street to pray. But the young stars of “Slumdog Millionaire” were cruising Mumbai in an air-conditioned Toyota Friday, doing last-minute shopping and getting advice on the unimaginable: air travel.
The slumdog kids had just got the good news _ they were going to the Oscars.
“I feel very very very very very very good,” 10-year-old Azharuddin Ismail said, sitting across from his home, a scruffy lean-to of tarps and blankets.
He’d never been on plane. He’d never traveled outside India. And, when pressed, he couldn’t name any Hollywood stars he’d really like to meet.
Neither could Rubina Ali, his 9-year-old co-star and neighbor.
Both were plucked from the slums of Mumbai by director Danny Boyle to star in “Slumdog Millionaire,” a rags-to-riches tale of a slum kid who makes it big. The film has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Azhar, as his friends call him, was cast as the hero Jamal Malik’s brother Salim, and Rubina as the young Latika, who grows up to be his love interest.
All nine actors who play the three lead characters in three stages of their lives will attend the awards ceremony Sunday. “The kids are on their way to the Oscars! Everyone is very excited!” Boyle said in an e-mail confirming the good news Friday.
[From AP via Huffington Post]
Yesterday I saw a segment on BBC news about the two families of Azhar and Rubina with footage of how they live. It is one thing to hear or read about it, but seeing how they live really brings it home. Azhar’s family doesn’t even have a roof and lives under a plastic sheet. Azhar was crying and his dad said they didn’t want to be shown that way. Azhar’s dad is bone thin and he pulled the skin on his arm to show how pliant it was from chronic tuberculosis. Rubina is doing a little better as her family has a roof. She says she wants to become an actress and use the money to help the poor.
Of course these children’s lives were changed by these roles, but it’s not enough to just pluck them out and show them looking cute on film and at events when it’s convenient. How much would it cost to change their lives now?