The shantytown home of a child star in the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” was torn down on Thursday as Mumbai authorities cleared an illegal slum, eyewitnesses said. A team of workers moved into the sprawling Gareeb Nagar shantytown in the Bandra East area of central Mumbai, which had sprung up on government land. “They came and destroyed the house when my son was sleeping,” said Shamim Ismail, whose son Azharuddin played the young Salim, elder brother of the film's central character Jamal. “Now we don't have any place to go so we're sitting here right now with our belongings. I hope someone from the government will help us,” she added. Eyewitnesses said 11-year-old Azharuddin, known to his family and friends as Azhar, was sleeping when the council workers arrived. They were told to pick up their few belongings and leave immediately. Metal and tarpaulin sheets were removed by hand but hours later residents of the huts had returned in anticipation of rebuilding their makeshift homes, a source close to the family said. Azhar and nine-year-old Rubina Ali, who played the younger version of Jamal's love interest, Latika, in the film, both still live in Mumbai's slums and had been told they would be rehoused. “We were promised that we will get a government flat but we have still not got anything yet,” said Azhar's mother. Azharuddin was asleep when a police officer woke him up and told him to leave his family's home, he said. Shortly after that, the shack and about 30 more were destroyed. “A police officer took a bamboo stick to hit me, and I was frightened,” said 10-year-old Azhar. Eight Oscars and $326 million in box office receipts have so far done little to improve the lives of the film's two impoverished child stars, Azhar and Rubina Ali - who were plucked from the slum to star in the blockbuster.
