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Report: Slumdog Millionaire actress for sale by dad
It seems like a pitiful case of reality starting to imitate art.
The father of an adorable child actress in the the rags-to-riches tale, “Slumdog Millionaire,” is trying to sell his 9-year-old daughter for $300,000, claiming his desire to get his family out of the Mumbai squalor, a British tab reported yesterday.
The girl, Rubina Ali, starred as a young Latika, one of the main characters in the Oscar-winning film, which starts off with a ruthless gangster trying to profit from the street orphans he trains to beg for money. The film centers around a Mumbai teen from the slums who becomes a contestant on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”
“I have to consider what’s best for me, my family and Rubina’s future,” Rafiq Qureshi told the News of the World.“The child is special now,” one of Qureshi’s brothers said. “This is NOT an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!”
The weekly tabloid said it learned from an informant in Mumbai that Qureshi was looking to sell his daughter to the highest bidder after a Middle Eastern family already approached him about paying to adopt her. A reporter from the paper posed as a rich Dubai sheik and met with Qureshi, who offered Rubina in exchange for £200,000 — roughly $296,000.
The paper yesterday posted a story and video clips of the meeting between Qureshi and the undercover reporter last week.
According to the story, Qureshi said he wanted to get his whole family out of the slums and alleged that the family received little for her appearance in the movie.
Though Rubina is still living in poverty, the U.S. producers of the movie have set up a trust fund to pay for the education and housing for her and other child actors in the film.
It is unclear whether authorities in India will take any action.
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