For two of the smallest stars of “Slumdog Millionaire” and their poverty-stricken families, it’s a Bollywood dream come true.
Some 9,000 miles away from LA’s Kodak Theatre, in a Mumbai slum overflowing with raw sewage, stray dogs and lean-to settlements, their friends and relatives got up before dawn to catch Hollywood’s biggest night.
Muni Qureshi, whose daughter Rubina Ali, 9, plays the child version of the film’s heroine, said she was proud of her girl – even though she wasn’t too familiar with the awards.
“I don’t really know what the Oscars are,” Qureshi told CNN. “I’m just glad my daughter looks happy, though she told me she misses Indian food.”
Rubina lives with her mother in a one-room shack with a tin roof.
Her co-star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, lives in the same slum with his family. They have no walls or beds, just a tent-like covering of tarp. “The whole country is happy about this. They are very happy that a boy from the slums is also now a star. I’m also very happy,” said Mohammed Ismail, Azharuddin’s father.
As for the children themselves, they gleefully hit up Meryl Streep and “007” Daniel Craig for autographs – Streep also gave them a hug – and their giddy red-carpet interview was a welcome respite from the tedious theatrics from some of their La-La Land peers.
When Ryan Seacrest told them, “Say hi, guys!” the grinning kids shouted, “Hi guys!”
And the six chimed in unison, “Unbelievable!” when asked how they felt being at the Oscars. “I never thought it would be an Oscar, this movie,” said a tuxedoed Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who plays the youngest version of film’s hero.
But the fun didn’t end there. The young stars were preparing to go to Disneyland yesterday and had visited Universal Studios, according to reports in the Indian press.