UPDATE: Fox Searchlight and Danny Boyle have been quick to combat the below referenced story with statements and press clippings of their own. Inside, both the original story and the updated material.
Eight year olds Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, the children of Slumdog Millionaire are still stuck in the slums, though technically they are part recipients of last Sunday’s SAG award for best cast. In one of those stories that you really hope isn’t true while you simultaneously suspect it is, the parents of the kids have started going to the press, bemoaning the current conditions of their little stars…
From The Telegraph:
The film’s British director, Danny Boyle, has spoken of how he set up trust funds for Rubina and Azharuddin and paid for their education. But it has emerged that the children, who played Latika and Salim in the early scenes of the film, were paid less than many Indian domestic servants.
Rubina was paid £500 for a year’s work while Azharuddin received £1,700, according to the children’s parents.
However a spokesman for the film’s American distributors, Fox Searchlight, disputed this saying the fees were more than three times the average annual salary an adult in their neighbourhood would receive. They would not disclose the actual sum.
Both children were found places in a local school and receive £20 a month for books and food. However, they continue to live in grinding poverty and their families say they have received no details of the trust funds set up in their names. Their parents said that they had hoped the film would be their ticket out of the slums, and that its success had made them realise how little their children had been paid.
If that doesn’t twist the heart-screws how about this: Azharuddin’s life has actually gotten worse. His family’s hut was deemed illegal and was demolished by local authorities. The child now lives under a tarp with his father, who is dying of tuberculosis.
And, of course, somewhere a studio head pauses while counting his money.
Fox Searchlight responds: The welfare of Azhar and Rubnia has always been a top priority for everyone involved with Slumdog Millionaire. A plan has been in place for over 12 months to ensure that their experience working on Slumdog Millionaire would be of long term benefit. For 30 days work, the children were paid three times the average local annual adult salary. Last year after completing filming, they were enrolled in school for the first time and a fund was established for their future welfare, which they will receive if they are still in school when they turn 18.
See? All they need to do is live for 10 more years under a tarp with their dying parents and they’re scott free?
I’m shaking my head, because that’s the only thing I can think of to do.
UPDATE:
Fox Searchlight was quick to respond to my loud head-shaking with some additional press clips suggesting that the kids were not exploited, but will receive a lump-sum payment when they complete their education after being enrolled by the production itself.
The filmmaker’s statement:
From the moment that we hired them and long before the press became interested in this story, we have paid painstaking and considered attention to how Azhar and Rubina’s involvement in the film could be of lasting benefit to them over and above the payment they received for their work.
The children had never attended school, and in consultation with their parents we agreed that this would be our priority. Since June 2008 and at our expense, both kids have been attending school and they are flourishing under the tutelage of their dedicated and committed teachers. Financial resources have been made available for their education until they are 18. We were delighted to see them progressing well when we visited their school and met with their teachers last week.
In addition to their educational requirements, a fund is in place to meet their basic living costs, health care and any other emergencies. Furthermore, as an incentive for them to continue to attend school a substantial lump sum will be released to each child when they complete their studies. Taking into account all of the children’s circumstances we believe that this is the right course of action.
Since putting in place these arrangements more than 12 months ago we have never sought to publicize them, and we are doing so now only in response to the questions raised recently in the press. We trust that the matter can now be put to bed, and we would request that the media respect the children’s privacy at this formative time in their lives.
- - Danny Boyle and Christian Colson
Also, this video from Reauters has Colson and Boyle in the flesh, as well as a videotaped statement from one of the Slumsdog parents:
