Home of Slumdog Millionaire child actor Rubina Ali demolished

Most successful Hollywood actors have at least two homes but in a cruel reversal of fortune two stars of the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire now have none. The shantytown house of Rubina Ali, who played the film's young hero Latika, was demolished by Mumbai authorities today, less than a week after that of co-star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail was torn down. Munni Qureshi, the stepmother of nine-year-old Rubina, claimed her husband was beaten by police who supervised the demolition. Eight Oscars and $326m (£216m) in box-office receipts have so far done little to change the lives of the film's two impoverished child stars. Last week bulldozers demolished the home of Azhar, who played a young Salim, one of the film's main characters, in a similar cleanup drive. He lived in a different part of the same slum amid a half-finished government park near Bandar station. Slumdog filmmakers have donated £500,000 to a charity to help slum children in Mumbai. They have set up a trust – Jai Ho, which is named after the hit song from the film – to ensure children get proper homes, a good education and a nest egg when they finish school.