Slumdog Millionaire has caught the eyes of two Royalty.
Prince William and wife Kate will visit the Mumbai slums made famous in Slumdog Millionaire during their upcoming trip to India.
See Photos;
The
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are determined to see for themselves the
poverty in which millions of the city’s inhabitants live.
The royal couple will visit projects working in the slums in India’s largest city, and possibly also in capital New Delhi.
They
will also learn about charities helping to get significant numbers of
children off the streets of big cities and into care and education.
A
source said: “As much as possible they want see things for themselves.
They will see projects focusing on children in significant urban
poverty.”
Following on from their mental health work in the UK, they will hear
how some organisations in India are improving the mental health of
street children as well as giving them physical health checks, food and
water and a safe place to stay.
William and Kate will also take in the Taj Mahal and rural life in Kaziranga National Park as part of their week-long tour beginning on April 10.
More
than half Mumbai’s 20 million inhabitants live in slums across the
city, and it has not yet been decided exactly which areas the couple
will visit.
They will leave George and Charlotte behind on their week-long trip to India and Bhutan from April 10 to 16.
Kensington Palace said their visit will focus on “young people,
sport, entrepreneurship, Indian efforts to relieve urban poverty, the
creative arts, and rural life”.
Director Danny Boyle
filmed Slumdog Millionaire in the Dharavi slum in the centre of the
city. The Oscar-winning 2009 film features real slum children who were
plucked from obscurity to play the roles.
Dharavi covers more than 500 acres and is home to an estimated one million people, crammed into a maze of makeshift housing.
Many
families live in desperate poverty and cramped conditions, with just
one toilet per 1,440 people according to a United Nations report in
2006.
However, the slum also has several thriving industries that export goods sold around the world.
Prince Charles and Camilla previously visited New Delhi’s Govindpuri slum in 2013.
The year before, Prince Andrew was criticised for flying in by private jet for a visit to the Dharavi slum.
Two of the child actors in Danny Boyle’s 2008 film Slumdog
Millionaire came from the grim slums depicted in it – and returned to
them after their brief fame.
Rubina Ali and Azhar Ismail were
nine when they played the young Latika and Salim respectively, and are
both from the Mumbai Garib Nagar slum.
They basked in glory at the 2009 Oscars ceremony as the acclaimed
film picked up eight gongs – including Best Picture Best Director and
Best Screenplay.
However, shortly after filming wrapped up the shacks they lived in were demolished under a crackdown on illegal settlements.
Boyle set up the Jai Ho Trust to provide for their education and housing and they moved into new homes.
Credit: Mirror
But in 2012 the pair spoke of how they were still struggling to make
ends meet and they wished they could get more work in acting.
In 2014, they were reunited for an interview and Rubina described shooting the film as “the best time of our lives”.
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