Slumdog's young stars promised better housing
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 | 3:03 PM ET
CBC News
Slumdog Millionaire's young stars at the Oscars on Sunday: front left, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Rubina Ali and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar; back left, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar and Tanay Hemant. Ismail and Ali have been promised better housing in India. (Matt Sayles/Associated Press)The two main child actors from Slumdog Millionaire are to receive new homes from the Indian government after the film won eight Academy Awards.
Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, who play the characters Latika and Salim as children, will be moved out of the Mumbai slum where they live by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.
"These two children have brought laurels to the country, and we have been told that they live in slums, which cannot even be classified as housing," said Gautam Chatterjee, head of the local housing authority.
He could not say how long it would be before housing could be found for the children.
Slumdog Millionaire is a rags-to-riches tale about a poor Mumbai boy who tells the story of his life to defend his win of the top prize in a TV quiz show.
Mumbai residents, including those in its desperately poor slums, celebrated the movie's win as best picture Sunday night.
But in the wake of its box office success, filmmakers Danny Boyle and Christian Colson were criticized for their treatment of the child actors, who were discovered in the slums and continue to live there with their families.
The filmmakers have argued the children are enrolled in school for the first time and a fund has been set up to pay their living and medical expenses.
Rubina, nine, lives with her family in a one-room shack, which is periodically demolished by authorities.
"We are happy that we will have a permanent roof over our head,'' her father Rafiq Qureshi told the Times of India.
Azharuddin and his family live in a tarpaulin lean-to.
"We have barely got any money from the filmmakers. In fact, whatever came, has already been spent," said the boy's father, Mohammed, who has tuberculosis. "This decision is a piece of good news for us.''
The children were in Los Angeles Sunday with the film's cast and crew to see Slumdog Millionaire be feted at the Oscars.
