IANS/Mumbai


Rubina Ali with her parents. They will move into her own new flat in Bandra West soon
Star-studded Mumbai suburb Bandra will soon have a new celebrity resident, Rubina Ali, one of the popular child actors in the multi-Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, whose life began in a shantytown 13 years ago.
She now has a flat costing around Rs4.5mn in Bandra West. While her new home is located in a government project in a middle-class locality, the Bandra address itself is significant for being home to Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Preity Zinta.
Rubina is thrilled.
“I am very happy with the developments. Ever since the movie was released, it has been my dream to have my own house in Mumbai. I even have my own bedroom!” a proud Rubina said, adding she will live with her parents, two sisters and a brother.
She had moved from the erstwhile Garib Nagar slum to a rented room in Bandra West and now into her own flat in the locality - all within three years of Slumdog Millionaire bagging eight Oscar awards, catapulting the girl to fame worldwide.
“A few weeks ago, the Jai Ho Trust set up by British director Danny Boyle bought a small 1-BHK flat for Rubina. She plans to move in there after Diwali, or around Eid, with her family,” her business manager Dinesh Dubey said.
He added that Boyle is likely to pay a visit to Rubina at her new home in Bandra, known as the ‘queen of suburbs’, by the yearend.
The family and Jai Ho Trust trustees spent several months hunting for a suitable flat within a certain budget. Finally, Rubina zeroed in on a flat in Bandra West and the trust readily made arrangements to buy it for her, Dubey said.
Other Bandra residents include Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu, Sanjay Dutt, Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha, other top Bollywood actors, top models, filmmakers, cricketers, politicians, leading industrialists, businessmen and diplomats.
Barely eight months ago, Rubina’s family had been thrown to the roads after a massive fire in Garib Nagar slum destroyed her tiny shanty.
Rubina lost the felicitations which the team got with the Oscar awards and other national and international award mementos, plus her other personal valuables in the fire.
The trust and some good Samaritans made quick arrangements for a rented room in Bandra West where she lived the past six months, and simultaneously hunted for a proper accommodation, Dubey said.
However, Rubina did not let the slum fire burn away her dreams - instead her resolve to pursue a career in movies became stronger.
She is presently signed for an upcoming international movie, Lord Owen’s Lady, which is under production and will be shot in Britain and India.
Rubina’s co-star in Slumdog Millionaire, Azharuddin Mohamed Ismail will also play a role in Lord Owen’s Lady, being produced by Sunil Manchandel and Martin Pennell, Dubey said.
The excitement of her next major international movie venture has not dampened her enthusiasm to get educated.
“My family and I will be starting a new life in the new house soon. But for me, the topmost priority is to complete my school and college education. Then I will pursue my dream of becoming a full-time actress,” Rubina said.
Both Rubina and Azharuddin study in Class 4 in the English-medium Asima High School in Bandra West, close to her new residence.
Azharuddin, who lost his father nearly one-and-half years ago, opted for a small flat in Santacruz suburb and commutes daily by bus to his school.
Dubey explained that Azharuddin had faced an emergency situation after his family was repeatedly evicted from their shanty in Garib Nagar. So the Jai Ho Trust arranged for a flat in Santacruz.
Three years after Slumdog Millionaire, Rubina penned her autobiography, Slumgirl Dreaming, which has been translated into several Indian languages after its release nearly two years ago.