Kids in Slumdog Millionaire Paid Poorly - Instablogs
Kids in Slumdog Millionaire Paid Poorly
veena , delhi: Jan 27 2009
Made Popular Jan 27 2009
India :

Kids in Slumdog Millionaire Paid Poorly

Despite the accolades Danny Boyle is getting for His Slumdog Millionaire, there are controversies and controversies.

Latest being the parents of the kids from the slums, Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina ali were paid less than what is being paid to the domestic servants. As per them the eight years old kids were exploited. Azharuddin was paid 1700 pounds and Rubina was paid just 500 pounds for the years’ work.

Naturally The Fox Searchlight the American Distributors have refuted this charge saying it is three times more than the adult’s salary in their neighborhood. While reiterating the fact the entire film crew was concerned about the welfare of the these kids, the spokesman refused to divulge the amount paid.

Danny has set up an education trust funds for them but the families have no details of these funds. The kids remain in abject poverty as before Azharuddin’s illegal hut was demolished by the local authorities and the while family is spending its days under a plastic sheet, sharing it with the father who is a Tuberculosis patient. The money received by Azharuddin was spent in his father’s treatment.

Rubina’s father, a carpenter broke his leg during the filming of the movie and is out of work. He also wants that since the money paid was pittance compared to the fame and money the film makers are getting, he would like more money.

As per the Director Boyle and Producer Christian Colson, the kids were not attending any school before, now they are studying regularly and showing good progress, they said they were taking care of the children’s education till they were 18 and after completing that the children will get a substantial amount to help in their future prospects, without divulging the amount.

It seems that the parents of Azhar and Rubina thought that with their children it would be a ticket to prosperity, but it does not seems so.

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1 Stars
Indian
Bangalore, India
Hey!!! 500-1700 pounds is a lot of money in Indian standards. What if the movie had become an utter flop?? Would the child’s parents returned the 500-1700 pounds also???
Moreover I am pretty sure that the producers didn’t put a gun at the parents or kids heads and made them agree for the price. They entered into an agreement before the filming and they better stick to it.
Now that the movie is successful and is raking in millions, they need not cry foul... that is just plain greedy.
1 Stars
Incognito
Boca Raton, United States
Veena, Unfortunately, this is something that happens all the time, that’s why we created actor unions in the U.S. to prevent exploitation, although there are non-union films, here, that will use actors, work them for long hours for little or no pay. I am a union actress so I do not work for nothing, but there are many actors who will, just to get on camera. But *extras* (actors who have no lines) get paid very little here, and sometimes nothing, even on union films.

Then you have films like ”The Blair Witch Project”, which was non-union, those actors got paid very little, and then the film made a ton of money. They complained a lot.

It is shameful, but it happens, unfortunately.
1 Stars
Well its difficult to comment on this as prima facie it does appear that the parents of these children are now feeling they have lost out on something big. They should also understand the fact that if the education of the children is being taken care of then that is also a significant contribution. And as Danny says the children will be given a decent amount of money once they turn 18. Somehow I am getting a feeling the parents have realised the movie has become much bigger than what they had imagined and now want to be a part of the commercial success...:) And if u see from there perspective there is nothing wrong in that as if we take a hypothetical example of a person X working in a small start up. If the start up becomes really succesful that person would also want a bigger share of the pie.. so I think these kind of issues are quite normal and as long as there will be human beings these issues will arise...and finally since I saw ”Wall Street” two days back...I’ll say...Greed is Good”..:)
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