With Child-Selling Tale, Slumdog Has Officially Gone from Heart-Warming to Gut-Wrenching
Rubina Ali was plucked from the slums of Mumbai to star in Slumdog Millionaire, which went on to be a smash hit around the world. Too bad absolutely nothing good came of that!
The father of Rubina (age 9) reportedly tried to sell her for $300,000 to an undercover reporter, because his family didn't make any cash from the film:
[The father] reportedly raised an asking price of £50,000 for Rubina to £200,000 at a later meeting.
Justifying the increase, his brother Mohiuddin was quoted as saying: "The child is special now. This is not an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child."
Jesus, that is truly horrible. Add in the tidal wave of poverty porn the movie started, and Slumdog is actually a net loss for the human race! Unless you're a News Corp. shareholder: Rubina Ali has now served Fox Searchlight in the film, and also Murdoch-owned News of the World for the original child sale story, and Murdoch's Times UK and New York Post for follow-ups. Good work!
Perhaps the only thing worse than a terribly impoverished dad trying to sell his own daughter is this:
[The British filmmakers behind Slumdog] said that they decided not to shower the child actors from Mumbai's shantytowns with cash for fear of having "a transformative impact on their lives".
Again: absolutely nothing good came out of this feel-good movie, unless you're Rupert Murdoch.
[Times UK]