Child actor Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail sleeps under a tarp under sky again in rainy season
Civil authorities in Mumbai, India have torn down the home of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, the 10-year-old boy from Mumbai’s slums who appeared as young Salim in the Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. (Worldwide, the film has currently grossed $326,000,000) so apparently he didn't even make enough money on that flick for his family to rent a one bedroom apartment! He needs a better agent!The home, more properly described as a shack or a lean-to with a tarpaulin roof and situated in the Garib Nagar slums,
Those whose homes were destroyed were given
no advance warning. Ismail’s mother told the press, “We didn’t even
get a chance to remove our belongings. We
are now left with no roof over our head tonight and the monsoon will begin
in a few weeks. We have lived here for 15
years. I don’t know what we will do next.”
The 10-year-old actor, who had been asleep
in the home when the bulldozers came to demolish it, told reporters, “A
police officer took a bamboo stick to hit
me, and I was frightened.”
The authorities, no doubt embarrassed by the
sudden publicity of the event—the outrageous and inhumane destruction of
the homes would never have found its way into
the news had it not been for the level of fame achieved by one of the
victims—have suggested they will provide the
Ismail family with housing, but that promise has not yet been kept.
The destruction of the Ismail family’s home is the second highly-publicized tragedy to befall a young cast member from the Oscar-winning film. Last month, the impoverished father of 9-year-old Slumdog actress Rubina Ali allegedly tried to sell his daughter to a wealthy family. Since then, the Jai Ho Trust, established by the makers of Slumdog Millionaire to provide for their young child stars when filming was completed, has hired a social worker to see that Ali is kept safe.
The Jai Ho Trust was meant to provide young Ismail and Ali with housing, education and, once they turned 18 and completed school, an undisclosed amount of money with which to begin their adult lives. The filmmakers CELADON a british corp, director/writer, donated $747,500 to a charity charged with providing support to the large number of Mumbai’s slum children.
In spite of their efforts, the filmmakers have been unable to secure a stable, healthy life for their child actors. Both Ismail and Ali continue to suffer in the slums, with Ismail and his family now forced into homelessness. Ultimately, such acts of personal charity, while well-meaning, are inadequate. UNITED NATIONS PEGS NUMBER OF STREET KIDS THERE AT ONE QUARTER MILLION, 2.5 lakhs which is 2.5 x l00k. so each child will get 3$ which is enough money for a hot lunch.. Oh goody. FOX SEARCHLIGHT the American corp that made the 326 million bucks gave nothing and stated that "paying the actors 700$ each was a lot of money in that country! http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/28/slumdog-millionaire-child-actors/INTERNATIONAL STARDOM and then the gutters of Mumbai. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
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