AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Are Slumdog Millionaire's youngest stars too cool for school?

The benefactors who set up a trust fund for youngsters Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubina Ali to better their lives in the wake of the film's success said Thursday that the kids have skipped too much school and could lose their financial support.

The terms of the Jai Ho Trust, set up by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson, stated that Rubina, 9, and Azharuddin, 11, show up for at least 70 percent of the school term. They've been receiving $120 monthly stipends and are due to receive larger sums when they turn 18.

But right now, Rubina's attendance stands at 27 percent and Azharuddin's is 37 percent.

And that's not good enough, according to Boyle and Colson, who also hooked the Ismails up with a $50,000 home in July.

Keep Reading

AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade

Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail has officially said goodbye to the slums.

The impoverished child star and his family moved into their new home this weekend, nearly one month after Slumdog Millionaire filmmakers purchased a one-bedroom Mumbai apartment for the 10-year-old.

A far cry from the family's recently demolished shanty, a bright-eyed Ismail says: "I like it here, it is really nice. But I will miss my old friends back in Bandra. Maybe I will go and visit them once a while."

The Jai Ho trust, set up for the young stars by Slumdog director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson, provided the $50,000 to purchase the home, after the Ismail's lost their shack without warning in May to a government bulldozing of the illegal dwelling.

Gratitude comes in droves for the family who has never owned a home of their own.

"We have lived on the road for so many years," says Ismail's mother, Shamaam.  "I had never dreamed that we would have a roof over our heads."

The Jai Ho Trust is still searching for a home for Slumdog cutie Rubina Ali and her family.

Junko Kimura/ Getty Images, Robert Voets/UPN

•  As appalling as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie without Joss Whedon sounds, how do you feel about the latest rumor that Sarah Michelle Gellar could be passing her sharpened stakes to Megan Fox? Yeah, coffee on the computer screen. You might want to clean that up.

•  Might an I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! showmance be in the works? Word is there might be little Holly Montag-Sanjaya smoochies ahead.

•  After reading the above two notes, settle your stomach with David Archuleta's cover of Vanessa Carlton's "1,000 Miles." It's really good.

•  People all over the internet are calling this Freida Pinto quote a confirmation of her romance with Dev Patel. While we don't deny their coupledom, this is not a declaration of love.

•  Gerard Butler thinks he's funny.

•  Dear Emmy Rossum: You're just too pretty. We might have to hate you. Sorry. Love, Rise 'n' Shine

Get in the Father's Day spirit with our new Hollywood's Hottest Dads gallery!

And don't forget to follow us on Twitter @eonline!

AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade

That makes one less real-life slumdog for the young cast of Slumdog Millionaire.

Filmmakers this week began to make good on their much-publicized pledge to purchase homes for the child actors that appeared in the Oscar-winning film, buying a one-bedroom Mumbai apartment for the family of 10-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail.

The house hunt was ramped up in recent weeks after the illegal shacks of both Ismail and 9-year-old costar Rubina Ali's family were bulldozed over in a government sweep of their slums.

The deal was completed earlier this week as the Jai Ho Trust, set up by director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson with the purpose of educating and housing the young stars, provided the $50,000 to purchase the home.

"We signed the papers on Monday," a spokesman for the trust said. "We have the keys and we will hand them to the family."

Keep Reading

AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Not only are they world-famous, the Slumdog kids are world-class travelers, too.

Three months after their fairy-tale trip to the Oscars, and weeks after two of them were rendered temporarily homeless, the child stars of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire—Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubina Ali—are on the go again, this time flying to Hong Kong to attend a charity fundraiser.

The trio arrived at Hong Kong International Airport Friday and were greeted by a gaggle of media as they headed to a luxury hotel. On Saturday, they're expected to perform a song-and-dance routine as part of a benefit for the Hong Kong charity The Community Chest that will air on local television.

Keep Reading

AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade

Danny Boyle doesn't need an Oscar-caliber script to create engrossing drama with his child stars—all he needs is an irate father.

The Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director today met with slum-dwelling child actors Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and their families to discuss the status of the homes promised to them in the wake of the film's success.

The issue has become even more pressing after the families of 9-year-old Ali and 10-year-old Ismail both lost their homes earlier this month in a premonsoon city-wide razing of illegal shanties—shelters which amounted to little more than plastic sheets propped up by bamboo sticks.

"We've been trying for a long time to move them into legal accommodation," Boyle told reporters at Mumbai's Tata Institute of Social Sciences, where he and fellow producer Christian Colson met with the families.

"Inevitably, the tension and pressure is media generated. They were given access to a world, an extraordinary and glamorous world, and they understandably want their lives to be completely transformed."

Keep Reading

Courtesy: Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland

The hits keep coming for the young cast of Slumdog Millionaire. And in this case, the hit came courtesy of an unexpected bulldozer.

The Mumbai slum home of 10-year-old actor Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, who played the youngest version of Salim in the Oscar-winning film, was demolished early this morning without warning as part of the city's pre-monsoon razing of more than 30 illegal dwellings.

Police gave Ismail's family just moments to leave the shelter in the Bandra East slum, with an officer reportedly hitting the sleeping child with a bamboo stick to wake him and order him out of his family's squatter residence, comprised of plastic sheets placed over bamboo sticks.

"We are homeless, we have nowhere to go," the boy said following the demolition.

Keep Reading

Peter Sorel / Summit Entertainment; Warner Bros. Entertainment

Gone is the Superbad funny business of yesteryear. Teenage romance and men in masks are what the 2009 MTV Movie Award are all about.

That swoony, mushy love stuff—we're lookin' at you, Twilight, High School Musical 3: Senior Year and Slumdog Millionaire—and the studly superheroes—Iron Man, The Dark Knight—square off in the Best Movie category…and just about every other competition as well.

Keep Reading

Dave Hogan/Getty Images, Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

Assuming, of course, they haven't already.

In one corner, we have Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, the Slumdog Millionaire stars who always appeared superclose while out promoting their Oscar-winning flick but insisted that any romance between them was strictly onscreen.

Hmmm, then maybe they can help us decipher the latest pics making the rounds that show these "friends" enjoying what seems to be a rather intimate lunch in Israel this week.

And in the other corner, there's Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who certainly don't need any introduction here, given our obsession the phenomenon that is Twilight, and much like Dev and Freida (or can we call them Devda?), clues of a coupling are quickly mounting. That, or it's all just wishful thinking.

So what say you? Which offscreen pairing would you like to see happen? Please let us know, as we can't quite decide since much of our focus today has been on that other couple, Lindsay and Sam.

Keep Reading