Jai ho! 25L house makes Slumdogs lakhpatis

MUMBAI: Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle visited the city with another largesse for the little actors he turned into international stars. A day after the Mumbai Congress offered to finance the tenements that Mhada had allotted to Mohammed Azharuddin and Rubina Qureshi, the Jai Ho Trust set up by Boyle and producer Christian Colson leased two apartments worth Rs 25 lakh each in Santa Cruz west.
Boyle said, "The reason we formed the trust was to deal with emergencies like this (the demolition of both the children's homes).We will give the children legal accommodation so that they do not find themselves in a similar vulnerable situation. We will first rent houses for them and later buy it in the name of the trust.'' Azhar's family accepted but Rubina's father dismissed the idea of moving out of the queen of the suburbs where he lives.
It was a seminar on child rights and media organised by TISS that became the unlikely venue for the latest episode in the Slumdog saga. Members of the Jai Ho Trust, who were participating in the roundtable, invited the film's director Danny Boyle along with the child actors of the film because they were ideal case studies for the subject. Boyle took the stage to settle the pending demand for a new home for the kids, announcing that he would lease one apartment each for them in Santa Cruz.
Over the past few weeks, the families were shown a few apartments in Jogeshwari, Mahim and Malad and asked to choose. After actor Anil Kapoor persuaded them to give up the demand for a specific location, Azhar's mother Shamim relented. "I met Danny Boyle on Wednesday,'' she said. "He asked me if I had liked the apartment in Santa Cruz and I said I did. In fact I liked another one in Andheri too. As long as they make good their promise of giving us a pucca home to live in, I am satisfied. But I will be convinced of their intention once I actually move my stuff into the new home.''
However, Rubina's father Rafiq Qureshi, a smalltime carpenter from Bandra, dismissed the proposal. "I stormed out of the meeting,'' he said. "Why would I uproot myself to faraway Santa Cruz when I have made home in Bandra since decades? The trust found a school in Bandra for my daughter, can it not find a home for her too? It is easy to buy a house anywhere in Mumbai if one is willing to invest the money.''
Professor Nirja Mattoo, a member of the Jai Ho Trust, confirmed that Rubina's family maintained some reservations about the house. "Both families wish to remain in Bandra but we must overcome budgetary constraints before we can fulfil their demands. Azhar's parents have agreed to shift to Santa Cruz, and we are doing our best to prepare the paperwork soon so they can move in before the monsoon,'' she said. Mattoo believes the Jai Ho Trust is the single largest welfare initiative set up by a film unit for the welfare of its artistes.