“Slumdog Millionaire” was one of the world’s favorite movies in 2008. But just a few months later, one of the movie’s young stars was displaced from his home in an episode that seemed scripted more for the screen than real life.
Photo: scriptingnews
Even if, like me, you still haven’t seen “Slumdog Millionaire” (I know, I know, what am I waiting for?!), you’ve probably heard of the movie.
You probably could even narrate the basic plot:
While the movie’s leading man, Dev Patel, has gone on to fame, doing the TV talk show circuit and currently filming his next movie, “The Last Airbender,” other young stars from the movie haven’t fared so well.
Like Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail.
National Public Radio reported on Thursday that 10 year old Azharuddin, who played the youngest Salim in the film, was displaced from his home this week when Indian authorities razed illegally built shacks in preparation for monsoon season.
The authorities said they were unaware the child star lived in the slum, and offered promises that the family will be moved to more stable, secure housing.
According to the article, the lives of the film’s youngest stars–who were not professional actors and were recruited directly from slums, as was the case in the Brazilian film, “City of God,”– have not improved significantly since their “big break.” While the film’s producers said they have established a trust fund for the young stars, there have been no tangible changes in the circumstances in which they live since the film won 8 Oscars.
Community Connection:
Headed to India any time soon? Check out Shreya Sanghani’s excellent article, “10 Indian Customs to Know Before Visiting India.”
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7 Comments... join the discussion!
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It’s pretty messed up that these kids haven’t been able to make enough money to get themselves some decent housing, while the studio and the rest of the actors are surely making plenty of cash.
I’m also wondering why the government of India promised to put them both and their families in better housing after the movie won all of those oscars, yet haven’t done so.
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And what about all his neighbors who don’t even have a hope of receiving assistance?
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A few weeks back, I spoke with a Brazilian film director about this same issue. Long before “City of God’ achieved the same kind of wild popularity that “Slumdog Millionaire” enjoyed, there was a movie called “Pixote,” and the directors went into the favelas to find kids who could play “authentic” “characters”… because they weren’t characters. I don’t know how successful the movie was commercially (it was released in 1981), but it was a profoundly powerful film. A few years after watching it, I read an essay about the film in which I read that most of the kids who’d been recruited for the film had been killed. Their circumstances never changed. I’m not sure that the directors/producers of these kinds of films have responsibility for lifting kids out of poverty, but if they’re utilizing them for commercial success, there’s something that feels really shady about just packing up the cameras and going home after the film’s released and leaving those kids in the same conditions.
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I would like to see the children in the movie given help, but it would seem to me that the studio, directors, actors and all those that made a profit from this film would be doing “something” to change the circumstances of all those that live in the slums of Mumbai.
Director Boyle has made promises, there is a trust fund, apartments being made available, the children are going to school. Claims throwing money at it is not the solution. But too little has been done (http://tinyurl.com/o2xtl4) as is obvious that this young persons “home” was demolished before he could remove his belongings, or even his pet kittens and hen.
They opened the viewing audience’s eyes to what is really unacceptable and then turned a blind on it once they had used these people for their benefit. I know that I could not have slept at night after returning those children back to the slums after they spent those days in Hollywood. You don’t miss what you don’t know. Its like flying first class. Once you have done so, its hard to climb back to coach. I find this very, very sad.
And have to wonder why nothing is being done? The film earned over $162 million. A few of those millions could not be sent to this area to help these people, all of them, improve their life conditions.
How greedy, how stingy can we be?
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Same story with the film “Salaam Bombay”…many of the child stars just ended up worse off. If you take a kid who’s seen nothing but the slums and put him in the spotlight for a while only to abandon him later it’s probably going to end up hurting more. These movies become so popular that the child stars are catapulted to great fame which even professionals can’t handle. Sinking back into obscurity must be so difficult…
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This is terrible, and a testament to a blood sucking entertainment system…but I cringe at the focus on this one kid, when thousands if not millions of people face similar dire situations daily. Ah, but we know his face. We cheered his success, naturally e should be elevated above his poor peers…right?
He was used, no different form the people we use to make our Nikes and ipods.↵
