Mumbai slum cheers win
Children broke into Bollywood dance numbers and crowds cheered in the narrow lanes of a teeming Mumbai slum Monday as their hometown heroes nabbed Hollywood’s highest honors.
Two of the child actors in “Slumdog Millionaire” were plucked from a desperately poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Mumbai to star in the rags-to-riches tale that stormed the Academy Awards.
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali, 9, were flown to Los Angeles for the ceremony, leaving their friends back home to gawk, beam, shout and dance in celebration.
“My eyes couldn’t believe that I was seeing Rubina in America,” said her best friend.
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