MUMBAI, India — The search for new homes for two impoverished child stars from the hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire” has intensified, as one child fell sick days after city authorities demolished the shanty where she lived, family members said.
Nine-year-old Rubina Ali came down with a fever Friday and spent a few hours in a local hospital, they said.
“I’m fine now, but I feel tired,” Rubina said Saturday as she lay in bed at her uncle’s house.
Rubina’s block was razed Wednesday to make way for a planned pedestrian overpass at a commuter train station in Mumbai. Last week, co-star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail’s home was demolished, part of a pre-monsoon slum clearance drive.
After the runaway success of their film, “Slumdog” director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson set up the Jai Ho trust to ensure the children receive proper homes, a decent education and a nest egg when they finish high school.
They have also donated $747,500 to a charity to help slum children in Mumbai.
The filmmakers have agreed to raise the amount of money they will spend on apartments for each family from $30,000 to $50,000, a Jai Ho trustee and Rubina’s father, Rafiq Qureshi, both told The Associated Press on Saturday.
“We are trying our best to finalize things as soon as possible,” Jai Ho trustee Nirja Mattoo said Saturday. She said representatives of the trust took Azhar’s family to look at a few nearby apartments this week. City authorities have also promised the children and some of their neighbors new homes.
