Filmmakers meet with Mumbai stars

THE makers of Slumdog Millionaire met with the film’s two impoverished child stars yesterday in Mumbai, but the father of one of the children stormed out of the meeting, saying they have been forgotten since the movie won eight Oscars.

Rubina Ali, 9, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, both lost their homes this month as city authorities cleared out parts of the slum where they live.

Rubina has been staying with relatives and Azhar has been living in a makeshift shanty of tarps and blankets with his parents.

“We’ve been trying for a long time to move them into legal accommodation,” director Danny Boyle told reporters at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on the outskirts of Mumbai, where he and producer Christian Colson met the children and their families.

Boyle also said he plans to make two more films set in Mumbai.

But Rafiq Qureshi, Rubina’s father, said Boyle has not done enough.

“It has been five to six months,” Qureshi said. “Everything is available in Mumbai if you have the money. If you really want to get us a house you can get us a house in two days.”

“After the Oscars they forgot about us,” he added.

The filmmakers set up a trust to ensure the children get homes, a decent education and a nest egg when they finish school. They pledged to spend up to $100,000 (€72,000) to buy the two families apartments and donated $747,500 to a charity to help Mumbai slum children.