While some young singers and actresses have been criticised for writing their autobiographies while still in their 20s, we can’t imagine too many people will be pouring scorn on the idea of a memoir by nine-year-old Rubina Ali, who played the youngest version of Latika in Slumdog Millionaire.
The book has been announced by Transworld Publishers, who say the tome will allow Ali to, “Tell her own incredible story, from playing marbles with her friends beside the sewers of Garib Nagar in Mumbai, to dancing along to the Bollywood films she and her family watch on their old television set.”
There’ve also been plenty of ructions for Ali since the film’s release, although it’s not clear whether these will be covered in the book. Not long after Rubina returned from a worldwide promotional tour for the film, the family’s slum home being levelled by the government, and her father allegedly beaten by the police when he refused to leave the residence. Since then there have been promises of new houses from the Indian authorities and a trust set up by the makers of the film, but as things stand, Ali and her family are still living in temporary slum housing.
However, if she’s able to write a memoir at the age of nine, at least the schooling in the slums must be pretty good (don’t worry, we’re not serious, it appears she’s had some help). The book, ‘Slumdog Dreaming: My Journey To The Stars’, will be published in the US on July 16th.