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Parents of ‘Slumdog’ actors feel exploited
The feel-good movie of the year, “Slumdog Millionaire,” is being tainted with a bit of nastiness of late. According to The Telegraph, the parents of two of the young actors who played Latika and Salim as children believe the producers were dishonest and did not live up to their end of the deal vis-a-vis salaries.
[From the Telegraph]
“The child actors’ parents have accused the hit film’s producers of exploiting and underpaying the eight-year-olds, disclosing that both face uncertain futures in one of Mumbai’s most squalid slums.”…
The film’s British director, Danny Boyle, has spoken of how he set up trust funds for Rubina and Azharuddin and paid for their education. But it has emerged that the children, who played Latika and Salim in the early scenes of the film, were paid less than many Indian domestic servants.
Rubina was paid £500 for a year’s work while Azharuddin received £1,700, according to the children’s parents.
However a spokesman for the film’s American distributors, Fox Searchlight, disputed this saying the fees were more than three times the average annual salary an adult in their neighbourhood would receive. They would not disclose the actual sum. “
Looks like someone should have negotiated some back-end points. I jest, of course, but it is a sticky and predictable situation. The movie is obviously making millions and millions of dollars, and now those who were paid well but not exorbitantly want their cut.
Read the full story here.
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By jason
January 28, 2009 12:25 PM | Link to this
i’ve heard the same about the children’s chorus in pink floyd’s the wall (“we don’t need no education”), but at least those kiddos were english boarding school brats…