Birthdate:1998 (day of birth is unknown)
Birthplace: Mumbai, India
Rubina Ali was handpicked out of hundreds of girls to play Latika in the Oscar-winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire. Check out Kidzworld’s biography on this talented star who overcame humble beginnings to captivate the whole world.
From Slumdog to Star
When Rubina auditioned for Slumdog Millionaire she was up against five hundred other kids from the slums of Mumbai, but director Danny Boyle saw something special in Rubina and she was cast in the role of a lifetime. Since the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Rubina has gone from playing marbles beside the sewers of Garib Nagar to attending red carpet events and visiting Disneyland in America. Despite her sudden success, Rubina is keeping grounded with the help of her family. Her classmates welcomed her back with excitement—she and her co-star Azhar were asked to stand at the front of the class to tell their story and they gladly shared photographs from their exhilarating experience.
A Modest Memoir
Rubina’s story is so riveting that she decided to write it down. With help from Anne Berthod and Divya Dugar Rubina captured her experiences in her very own memoir, Slumdog Dreaming: Rubina’s Journey to the Stars. In it, Rubina details her life in the Mumbai slum of Garib Nagar. She says her slum looks like all the others: “They are thousands of little shacks made out of whatever we can find—corrugated iron, wooden planks, plastic sheeting and a few cement blocks for the lucky ones—built around a sewer and looking out onto a mountain of rubbish.” When it’s hot out, Rubina and her friends would swim in the drainage pool, but she has to be careful not to touch the bottom because snakes will bite her feet if she steps on them.
What's Next?
Rubina and her family have since moved into a new house given to them for free by a government housing authority and Rubina is set to star in a new Bollywood movie called Kal Kisne Dekha. Best of all, a trust fund was set up by the Slumdog Millionaire producers so Rubina gets access to the money when she turns eighteen.
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