‘Slumdog’ child actors jet to L.A. for Oscars

‘Whole gang’ will be reunited after young Indian stars obtain visas

	Rubina Ali Qureshi, right, speaks with her father Rafiq Asghar Ali Quereshi at her uncle's home in a slum in Bandra, suburban Mumbai, India, on Friday. Rubina played the young Latika in the Oscar-nominated "Slumdog Millionaire."
Gautam Singh / AP

Academy Awards video

Elton John's Oscar party
Elton John talks about being able to raise 3 million dollars for AIDS research at his party in spite of the recession.

Inside Oscar's after-parties

Get Oscar looks for less

'Slumdog' kids celebrate

Zac and Vanessa talk Oscars

Sean Penn on his Oscar win

Oscar fashion highs and lows, part one

Oscar fashion highs and lows, part two

Danny Boyle gives thanks

'Slumdog' becomes Oscar's best in show

updated 4:56 a.m. ET Feb. 20, 2009

MUMBAI, India - The child stars of “Slumdog Millionaire” will take their first airplane trip when they attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Director Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches story set and shot in the slums of Mumbai has been nominated for 10 Oscar awards, including best picture and best director.

“The kids are on their way to the Oscars! Everyone is very excited!” Boyle said Friday in an e-mail.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

All nine actors who play the three main characters in three stages of their lives will attend the Oscars, Fox Searchlight Pictures said. They include actors comfortable on the red carpet, like 18-year-old Dev Patel, who lives in London, and the glamorous Freida Pinto, 24, who has been praised in Vogue as a new style icon.

But also attending will be Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali, 9, who were plucked from their homes in a Mumbai slum by Boyle and his team. The trip will be their first on an airplane and their first out of the country, relatives said.

'I'm not scared'
It was a scramble to get visas, passports and tickets for Azharuddin and Rubina, whose parents didn’t decide until the last minute that they wanted the kids to attend the ceremony, producer Christian Colson said by e-mail.

“I’m very happy that I’m going to the Oscars,” Rubina said in her home Friday, hours before she was to leave for the United States. “My friends are saying, ’your fate is so good.”’

Image: Ayush Mahesh Khedekar
Punit Paranjpe / Reuters
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who played the young Jamal in the film "Slumdog Millionaire", shows his passport at Mumbai's international airport on Thursday.
“I’m not scared,” added the girl, who will be traveling with her uncle. “I’m going to go and take a lot of pictures and show them to people over here.”