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Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire's child star Azharuddin Ismail plays with a chicken in front of a Slumdog Millionaire poster inside his recently demolished shanty in Mumbai on May 14, 2009. Work to clear illegally-built lean-tos and tarpaulin-covered huts is a regular occurrence, but the authorities readily admit that they can do little to stop them being rebuilt, given the city's acute housing shortage. (AFP)
Azharuddin Ismail, 9, played the character of Salim as a child in the film, a rags-to-riches romance about a poor Indian boy competing for love and money on a television game show.
Ismail's tarpaulin-covered home in a teeming slum was one of several shanties, illegally built along a drain, that were demolished by local authorities in Mumbai, India's financial capital and entertainment hub.
``When they came I was sleeping, they shook me awake and one policeman even threatened me,'' Ismail, surrounded by half-broken suitcases filled with clothes and utensils, told Reuters.
``What can I do if they have demolished my house? I will sleep out in the open.''
A poster of ``Slumdog Millionaire,'' signed by director Danny Boyle, fluttered from the only wall of Ismail's shanty still standing. Open sewers run nearby and it had no running water.
Authorities said the shanties had been demolished earlier but had sprung up again on the same spot.
``The shanties are all touching a drain that has to be cleaned before the advent of the monsoons,'' said UD Mistry, the local official in charge of the demolition drive.
Earlier this year, there was an outcry after pictures emerged of ``Slumdog Millionaire's'' child stars living in squalor despite the movie's box-office success and eight Academy Awards.
The film also sparked controversy for its name, deemed by some to be offensive to slum dwellers, and its treatment of the cast. Its depiction of the lives of poor Indians was dubbed ``poverty porn'' by sections of the media.
In February, the housing authority of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, said they would give Ismail and fellow child star Rubina Ali new houses. But Ismail's mother, Shameem, said the family is now at the mercy of the rains.
``We also heard that the government had promised us houses, but what happened? We are still homeless,'' she said. ``My son has brought glory to the country, shouldn't he get some credit?''
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