Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s newest film, was nominated for 10 Oscars and during the 81st Oscar Academy Awards show it was capable of bringing 8 nominations to reality on Monday. The movie is indeed a wonderful experience and it really was in the centre of the last Gala, however, people would not think that two of the young Indian child actors still live in the slums of Mumbai.
Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, the children who play the younger versions of the main characters, live in one of the many slums Mumbai has. Considering the fact that their performance contributed greatly to the success of the movie it was unacceptable why the children had not been moved. Moving the children to a new place along with their family would have been the perfect reward for their work. The chairman of the local housing association agreed and told BBC: “Since the children have made the nation proud, they must be given free houses. The chief minister of the state has approved this.”
Both the children live under horrible conditions; in fact, Azharuddin’s home has been recently demolished. As the boy’s father told BBC it had happened quite often in their lifetime that the government had decided to demolish their homes. He also added that they had hardly got any money from the creators of Slumdog Millionaire. What they were given was not much and it was already spent. He is glad that finally the family will get a permanent roof; however, local authorities said that the process would need some time to be accomplished.
When the director, Danny Boyle was accused of the exploitation of the two children, he denied the allegations. In fact, as it is said, the children were given wages for 30 days while the making of the picture was in progress, and the wages were above the average. However, the average is different in Mumbai from that of the US. Plus, these wages only amount to a small percentage of the revenue the film-maker studio will get for Slumdog Millionaire. Although it seems nice that the children are supported and arrangements are being made as we speak to make them enrolled in school, critics say that these are just political moves as the elections are coming. Politicians have always been under pressure because a large proportion of the Mumbai population lives in shacks or in worse places.
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