Slumdog child star in tussle with director Boyle over flat

Oct 30, 2009, 10:00 GMT

   New Delhi - Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is embroiled in a tussle with a child-star's family over an apartment in India's western city of Mumbai, a news report said Friday.

   Rafiq Qureishi, father of the child-star Rubina, met the film-maker who is currently visiting Mumbai, to discuss this issue, the NDTV network reported.

   Rubina's family is asking the director for an apartment worth 4 million rupees (approximately 85,000 dollars) compared to the 2.5 million-rupee home Boyle's Jai Ho trust is buying them, the report said.

   The Jai Ho trust established to help the child-stars financially until they turn 18 has already bought a flat for 10-year-old star Azharuddin Shaikh after civic authorities razed the shanties in May, deeming them 'illegal structures.'

   'The issue is about increasing the budget for the flat by another 1.5 million rupees or so. It is not a big demand, considering Rubina has earned a name for her acting and since our homes have been demolished,' Qureishi told NDTV.

   Sources told the network that Boyle had given Rubina's family a month-long deadline to take the home given, or nothing at all.

   'We reiterated the principles of the Jai Ho trust which are educational, health and housing and we have stuck to that. I think everybody's in agreement, so all's well and good for the future,' Boyle said.

   But Rubina's family continues to insist it wants the home it chose and might approach the state government for help, the report said.

   The tiny one-room tenement where Rubina lived with her parents and siblings in the Gareebnagar (city of the poor) area behind Mumbai's Bandra railway station was one of the more than two dozen properties demolished by the railway police on May 20.

   Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars, including best picture. It also won four Golden Globes and a host of other awards.

   According to industry estimates, it has grossed 328 million dollars at the box office so far.