Artisan Handicrafts :: Handicrafts from the heart and soul of Artisans
Article of the Week
Posted on: Monday March 6th, 2006
Slum Boy and His Brush With Oscar
Pics and text by Sanjay Austa
Salim, is a 12 year old boy of a man who makes his living picking rags from Delhi's streets. But Salim is also an actor and has played the protagonist in 'Little Terrorist', a film nominated for the Oscars in 2005 in the Best Live Action Short Film category. Written, directed, edited and produced by Ashvin Kumar, the film was about a 10 year old Pakistani boy who crosses into Indian border to retrieve his cricket ball and is given shelter by an elderly orthodox Hindu Brahmin as the border personnel launch a manhunt for him.
Salim and his brothers with their ragpicking father
"I got to know about selection of 'Little Terrorist' for Oscars from the newspapers he says sitting in his dingy slum home in Jehangpuri, New Delhi. Initially, when Salim told his father Muhammad Kalan about his selection in the film and acting stint, his father found it hard to believe. "When I showed him the newspaper with my photograph from the film, he said anybody can get his picture printed," Salim recollects. But when Kalan saw him being interviewed on a local television, he had to believe him. Kalan and his family have not been able to watch 'Little Terrorist' because the compact disc (CD) Salim brought, did not run on the rented CD player. He thanks the day when Salim got lost and landed up at Salam Baalak Trust, a non-governmental organisation where Salim has been enrolled for nine years.
It was during a Muharram rally that Salim got lost near New Delhi railway station in 1996. He spent two nights under the open sky with an empty stomach.
Fortunately a teacher working with Salaam Baalak Trust, which runs four childrens' homes in Delhi, spotted him at the station and brought him to the trust. The trust was able to find his parents only two years later.
But his father withdrew from the school and got him into rag picking with him. The Trust then decided to take care of Salim. The trust, headed by filmmaker Mira Nair's mother Praveen Nair trains its homeless children in theatre. Salim acted in a number of television dramas before Ashvin Kumar picked him to play the 'Little Terrorist'.
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