I wish Danny Boyle had groomed us to be actors, says ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ actor Azhar | Hindi Movie News

Despite several hardships, the child actor from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, Azhar Mohd Ismail is not giving up on his dream of being an actor. He had played the role of the youngest version of Salim in the film and had even attended Oscar’s ceremony back in 2009. But, fate hasn’t been as kind to him as it was shown in Danny Boyle’s film. Azhar and his mother have had to sell off their house in Mumbai and shift to Aurangabad to make ends meet.

Azhar at present is living in Aurangabad with his grandmother and training himself to make a return to the world of acting. He says, “I am working on my personality development and I have enrolled at a gym here so that I get fit enough to get work in films.”

Azhar also plans to return to Mumbai and test his mettle at auditions. He says, “Mother and I will come back to buy a new home and then start looking for work in Bollywood.” But why was the house given to them by Danny Boyle’s Jai Ho trust sold by the family? Azhar says, “After Danny uncle’s trust stopped paying the maintenance, it got difficult for us to pay that amount as my mother was a housewife and I was without work. So we decided to sell the house and we did buy another place in Bandra, but maintenance was a problem again, so we sold it and have moved to Aurangabad. My mother has kept the money safe so when we go back to Mumbai it can be utilized for our new house.”

But there were reports that the ‘Slumdog’ actor had taken to drugs and that forced him to go back to the village. Azhar denies it and says, “It is completely false and there were some people who spread these baseless stories about me to the media. I am focusing on making my career and I have my mother who is always there to guide me.”

Azhar seems upset with his mentor Danny Boyle for not helping him and Rubina Ali Qureshi, who played young Latika (older role played by Freida Pinto) in the film. He says, “They gave us a home but did not treat us like artistes and they didn’t help us in becoming actors. I am struggling and Rubina has become a make-up artist and is living somewhere in Nallasopara. Had they groomed us we would’ve become good actors in Bollywood. My other co-actors like Ayush Khedekar (youngest Jamal, the older role played by Dev Patel) and Ashutosh (teenage Salim) belong to a different class are doing well for themselves. How I wish we had got that support.”