'Slumdog millionaire's child star loses shanty home in demolition

Mumbai, May 20 (ANI): Shanty home of Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire's child star Rubina Ali was brought down by the civic authorities in Mumbai, an action which brought her family on road months after gaining a global appreciation.

Rubina's house in a teeming slum was one of several settlements that were demolished by local authorities in Mumbai.

Rubina was out with her aunt when the civic authority workers and the police landed at their house and asked them to vacate their house. Her father, when tried to protest the demolishing workers, was allegedly beaten up with sticks.

"My father tried to intervene and asked them how they can demolish our houses without even giving us notices, then they beat my father with sticks. My father had to go to the dispensary as his hand was swollen. These people continued demolishing our houses," Rubina said.

According to the slum dwellers, they had been living there for past many years and the authorities had not given them any prior notice before carrying out the demolition work.

"The government and the politicians all know that poor people live here, the police should not trouble the poor like us... Why do they trouble us? We have been living here for many years," said Munni Qureshi, Rubina's mother.

Eight-year-old Rubina played baby Latika, the film's heroine, in the rags-to-riches romance about a poor Indian boy competing for love and money on a television game show.

Earlier this year, there was an outcry after pictures emerged of "Slumdog Millionaire's" child stars living in squalor despite the movie's box-office success and eight Academy Awards.

The film also sparked controversy for its name, deemed by some to be offensive to slum dwellers, and its treatment of the cast. Its depiction of the lives of poor Indians was dubbed "poverty porn" by sections of the media.

In February, the housing authority of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, said they would give Rubina Ali and fellow child star Ismail new houses. (ANI)