Another ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ Child Star’s Home Torn Down In Mumbai Slum Demolition

MUMBAI, India --
The shanty home of another “Slumdog Millionaire” child star was torn down by Mumbai authorities Wednesday as they demolished part of a city slum where she lived.

Munni Qureshi — the stepmother of 9-year-old Rubina Ali, who portrayed a young Latika, the Oscar-winning film’s heroine — said her husband was beaten by police who were supervising the demolition. She said he was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

“How can the police barge in anytime without giving us notice,” Qureshi said, as she wept holding her forehead. Neighbors poured water over her to keep her cool as she sat in the scorching summer sun with Rubina.

“Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Oscars and brought in more than $326 million, but it has done little so far to improve the lives of the film’s two impoverished child stars, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubina.

Dozens of police with bamboo batons walked around the alley where Rubina’s house is located and supervised demolition crews of young men wielding sledgehammers and metal rods who tore down the shanty homes.

Last week, bulldozers demolished Azhar’s home in a similar cleanup drive in a different part of the same slum. By Wednesday temporary homes had already sprung up in the area. His family tied blankets and sheets of blue and yellow tarpaulin to a wooden frame to create a shelter.

Slums destroyed because they are illegal or are in the way of city development plans often resurface. Government promises of housing are not often met and when slum-dwellers are given homes, it is often in poor-quality buildings on the outskirts of cities, far from their jobs.

Rubina and Azhar were discovered on the Mumbai streets by the filmmakers. The film’s adult stars, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, have since shot to international fame. The lives of the two poor child stars — who live in the slum called Garib Nagar, or the “city of the poor” — haven’t changed much.

“I’m feeling bad,” Rubina told The Associated Press. “My house had been demolished. I’m thinking about where to sleep.”

“Slumdog” filmmakers say they’ve done their best to help the young stars. They set up a trust to ensure the children get proper homes, a decent education and a nest egg when they finish high school. They have also donated $747,500 to a charity to help slum kids in Mumbai.

Producer Christian Colson has described the trust as substantial, but won’t tell anyone how much it contains — not even the children’s parents — for fear of making the youngsters vulnerable to exploitation.

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Report: Danny Boyle Buying New Homes For ‘Slumdog’ Children

MUMBAI, India --
Things are moving forward with new homes for “Slumdog Millionaire” child stars Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, Danny Boyle told reporters in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday.

The two children and their families have been homeless since the recent bulldozing of their previous residences, which caused international headlines.

“It’s obviously a terrible concern,” Danny said, according to Reuters. “The trust is making progress in making sure they have good, solid, legal accommodation to live in, so that they are not vulnerable to things that happen.”

He reportedly added that a home has been purchased for Azharuddin, with one for Rubina coming shortly.

However, Rubina’s father, Rafiq Qureshi, said that he’s tired of waiting for his share of the Oscar-winning film’s success.

“It has been six months now that we haven’t got any house to live,” he said. “Isn’t it their responsibility to provide them houses?”

Danny and producer Christian Colson previously set up the Jai Ho Trust, named after the song that closes the film, to pay for the education and living expenses of the children until the age of 18.

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Shanty Home Of‘Slumdog’ Child Star Spared In New Slum Demolition

MUMBAI, India --
City authorities demolished the homes around the recently rebuilt shack of “Slumdog Millionaire” child star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail but left his standing Saturday.

A bulldozer and about 30 men leveled about 18 shanties in the section of the Garib Nagar — “city of the poor” — slum where Azhar, 10, and his family live. They left another dozen partially standing.

Azhar’s was untouched.

The city tore down the same homes, including Azhar’s, 16 days ago. The next week, authorities leveled the nearby lane where “Slumdog” co-star Rubina Ali lived.

By Saturday, most residents in Garib Nagar had finished rebuilding their makeshift shacks, often by taking out high-interest loans from local moneylenders.

Azhar’s father, Mohammed Ismail, said their home was spared because authorities knew about his son’s role in the Oscar-winning movie.

“Azhar has got an award. They respect that. I appreciate it. When they first demolished our house, they didn’t know,” Ismail said as he sat in the shack, recently tacked together from sheets of cheap metal, torn tarpaulins and blankets.

The state’s top official on Friday granted government apartments to both Azhar and Rubina, paid for with funds from the local chapter of the ruling Congress party. “Slumdog” filmmakers have also promised them homes. The families are now trying to figure out if they’ll be able to keep both.

Azhar said he’d like two apartments — one for himself and one for his parents — but also wants all his neighbors to get houses too.

“Before giving me a home, they should give it to my friends,” he said.

Eight-year-old Mahejbin Qureshi stood near a pile of broken boards and bent nails, all that remained of her home after a bulldozer shoved it into the fetid river that runs through Garib Nagar.

“They broke my home,” she said, tears streaming down her face as she held her baby brother in her arms.

U.D. Mistry, an official with the city’s Bombay Municipal Corporation, said the huts were destroyed because they were illegal. He said Azhar’s was spared because his family can prove they lived in Garib Nagar before 1995, which gives them some property rights.

Mistry said the city has no plans to provide homes to any other residents.

“There is no policy to relocate them because these huts are illegal,” he said.

But neighbors say they too have proof of residence before 1995.

“I have a ration card. My name is on the electoral rolls. I have electricity bills,” said a distraught Sayeda Abdulrahman Shaikh, a 30-year-old mother of five. “I showed them, but they destroyed my house anyway.”

Like many of the children of Garib Nagar, her son Salman, 12, was an extra in “Slumdog Millionaire.”

“We worked with Azhar. If they are getting houses, why not me?” Salman asked, sweating in the hot sun. “We are being ignored.”

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