I feel like everything I have read about the kids in Slumdog Millionaire have all been bad news. This is all so sad.
The poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali has offered to sell her for £200,000, it has been claimed.
Rafiq Qureshi, who lives in a one of India’s worst slums in the city of Mumbai, reportedly attempted to make an illegal adoption deal for the nine-year-old girl.
“We are considering Rubina’s future,” Mr Qureshi is alleged to have told a man posing as a prospective buyer.
We’ve got nothing out of this film. They haven’t looked after us. They gave some money at the start, but they gave nothing afterwards. They gave us around 150,000 rupees (£2,000).
“They’ve been talking about giving us a house, but all they do is talk.”
He referred the caller to his brother-in-law, Rajan More, who said: “Rubina’s life is miserable and she lives here with her stepmother. Most of the time she stays with me because she is not happy at her parents’ home.
“Obviously if you wanted to adopt, we could discuss this, but her parents would expect some proper compensation in return. We are talking around £50,000 for this to happen.”
However at a subsequent meeting the price was said to have risen to £200,000.
His brother Mohiuddin was quoted as saying: “The child is special now. This is not an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child.”
Slumdog Millionaire, which tells how one of India’s poorest, a ‘slumdog’, wins the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, has taken £185 million at box offices worldwide.
Mr Qureshi said he had only been given a small amount of money despite the success of the film.
He added: “What they showed in the film is exactly how life is here. The government doesn’t help us. We get nothing.
“We live in one room, seven of us sleep on the floor. I earn £2 to £3 a day. I have to consider what is best for me, my family and for Rubina’s future.”
——Personally, I don’t even know what to think about this article.