Quick Update On Slumdog Millionaire Kids

I wrote a couple of days ago that the young actor from Slumdog Millionaire was still living in the slum from which he was hired for his role in the movie. I turns out he has gotten a compensation package (CNN video) for his work in the movie:

The producers set up the Jai ho foundation specifically for the slum child actors. They say the children have been paid, get a stipend, a trust fund, and that the families have been offered better housing, but Ismail's mother says what is being offered is not good enough. "My son should live in a nice locality, a nice place where other stars stay," she says, "The family should own a home there." But the homes she is referring to cost millions of dollars in [Mumbai] and so far no one is offering that kind of money. So the family is staying put in the slum they know.

According to this article:

[T]he children's parents rejected the filmmakers' offer to move them from their makeshift shacks into proper apartments, demanding instead payment in cash. "Nothing would be easier than to throw money at this," says Colson. "But we felt from the beginning that that would be irresponsible." So he and Boyle (with input from the film's U.S. distributor Fox Searchlight) have hired local Indian social workers to help negotiate a solution that will relocate the families into safe and clean housing. Colson can't say how soon they'll resolve the matter, but he promises he won't quit until they do. "We are committed to this," he says. "We'll still be on this in two or three years. And you can hold me to account on that."

According to this article:

The movie's distributor, Fox Searchlight, as well as Boyle and Colson, all have responded to the Telegraph story with statements, asserting that "For 30 days' work, the children were paid three times the average local annual adult salary," and that the families have been given funds to cover "basic living costs, health care, and any other emergencies."

Boyle mentioned that he and the producers, cognizant of how a movie like Slumdog could change the kids' lives for the worse if proper care wasn't taken, had set up a trust fund for Ali and Ismail, accessible only if they enrolled in school — a first for both of them. "They’d never been to school," Boyle said. "So they have to stay in school until they're 18. When they reach 18, and if they've passed all their exams, a quite substantial sum of money — extra money [on top of their salaries] — will be released to them."

And then, of course, there is this:

Ten-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail was physically disciplined by his father in full view of a crowd in Mumbai, drawing an outcry from onlookers, Popeater.com reports. The actor, who played the youngest Salim in the Oscar-winning film, was reportedly slapped and kicked by his father after refusing to talk to local press.

In related news, the father of the little girl who played the young girl in the movie "considered an offer" to sell her for $300,000.

I'm starting to get a picture of parents who see these actors as nothing more than little sacks of money which they are trying to pry open. It's sad, but it's unfortunately the kind of thing you expect to hear about in India's slums.