Slumdog Tragedy

Slumdog Tragedy

Charmaine L, Age 15, Chinese International School

Motion: Were the children in Slumdog Millionaire treated unfairly or was it naïve for the children in Slumdog Millionaire to think their lives would totally change after the movie?

Despite the success of Slumdong Millionaire and its $15 million budget, childhood stars, Rubina and Azhar, are earning less than 0.004% and 0.016% respectively. Were the children in the Oscar-winningmovie Slumdog Millionaire ‘abandoned’ by the director? These 2 children were hired from the slums to star in a movie, Slumdog Millionaire. Just a few months before, they were walking on red carpet events and gaining worldwide recognition. Now, they are back where they were found- the slums. Fake promises were made and dreams were broken.

“what I liked about America is that it was clean. But when I came back to India I was crying. I won the Oscar, but my house was just the same” said Azhar in an interview for Reader’s Digest. After all this fame and publicity, why was this happening? They were promised 2 newhomes for their families and trust funds set up by Danny Boyle, the director ofthe film, but they haven’t received either of these promises. After returning to Mumbai, the children continued living in poverty and inhumane living conditions. Their ‘new’ homes were cramped, unhygienic and basically worse than the conditions in the slums. There was no water supply, paint was peeling off the walls and it was basically unbearable.

Furthermore, every kid living in a bad environment will accept any change for his or her lives to be better without any hesitation. The people who gave them fake promises are riding on the kids’ innocence. They leveraged on the kids’ disparity to trick them into thinking that they can pursue their dream. The kids were desperate to get out of their situation back then and anything to them is a dream. Without going through a detailed thinking process, Rubina and Azhar took up this role as actors and pursued their dream in America. However, others see this point and took advantage of them knowing that the kids may not be legally protected. If they don’t live up to their promises, the kids will not be able to find ways to sue or get back at them because of their lack of education and expectation.

How are they taking advantage of these kids? Hiring these kids from the slums is much cheaper and it requires a lot less acting experience because they are already from the slums. It will also make the film more realistic. This is a win-win situation for the film makers. They can raise the publicity of the movie by spreading the news that the kids actors are from the actual slums and they can also save a lot of money without paying them back full price. They will do anything to get famous, promise them a new apartment, promise them better living conditions in India etc. However, at the children’s point of view, they were swooped to wonderland from a hell, and then got thrown back to the dumpsters again. All the promises were fake and they believed them.

At the end of the day, the kids are innocent and usually kind-hearted. Naturally they would want to be famous and change their lives; I think it’s unfair for these people to take advantage of them.