MUMBAI : One of the child actors from the Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has moved from his Mumbai shantytown shack into a new home, the trust set up to manage his interests said on Saturday.
"Azharuddin Ismail's family moved into their new home last evening (Friday). We gave the keys to them," said Nirja Matoo, from the Jai Ho Trust, established by the movie's British director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson.
Matoo said the family's new home is a 250-square-foot (23-square-metre) ground-floor apartment in the Milan Subway area of Santa Cruz, near the Bandra district of central Mumbai.
"The parents told us the monsoon has arrived and they were finding it difficult to live in their shanties," she added.
The 11-year-old, who played the youngest version of Salim Malik, had been living with his mother and father in a corrugated iron hut in the Gareeb Nagar slum in Bandra.
The makeshift structure was demolished in May as part of an illegal slum clearance drive by the Mumbai civic authorities. It was quickly rebuilt.
Ownership of the new property would be transferred from the Jai Ho Trust to Azhar, as he is know to his family and friends, once he turns 18 and completes his education.
The Jai Ho Trust is also finalising the purchase of a similar property for Azhar's nine-year-old co-star, Rubina Ali, who also still lives in a Mumbai slum.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2009
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