Academy Award winner 'Slumdog Millionaire' was an important film for Bollywood. Although it was a foreign production, the film was largely shot in India and comprised of Indian actors for the most part. While lead actors like Dev Patel and Freida Pinto went on to have decent careers in Hollywood, things didn't go so well for a child artist of the movie. Azhar Mohd Ismail, who played the role of young Salim in the film, is struggling to make ends meet.

Azhar had to move to Aurangabad from Mumbai since he and his mother couldn't afford the maintenance of the house given to them by Danny Boyle's trust. Currently he is taking a personality development course and hitting the gym to make himself suitable for getting roles. Azhar isn't happy with the ignorance of his mentor Danny Boyle.

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."