'Slumdog' child actors will attend Oscars in LA

INDIA: The child actors from "Slumdog Millionaire" will attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Fox Pictures executives said Friday.

The rags-to-riches story set in the slums of Mumbai has been nominated for 10 Oscar awards, including best picture and best director.

James Finn of Fox Searchlight Pictures said Friday that the actors will be flown to Los Angeles and put up in a five-star hotel for two days.

All nine actors who play the three main characters in three stages of their lives will attend the Oscars, said Finn. They include Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, who director Danny Boyle and his team plucked from the slums, and the glamorous Freida Pinto, who has been praised in the pages of Vogue as a new style icon.

Azharuddin will travel with his mother while 9-year-old Rubina Ali, who also lives in a teeming Mumbai slum, will be traveling with her uncle, Finn said.

Finn said Fox Searchlight had been making visa and travel arrangements for the children and their relatives until the last minute. Securing visas and passports in India can be a torturous process, especially for impoverished Indians who often don't have the necessary identification forms and documents. "Everybody is really excited about it," Finn said. "It's nice the whole gang will be together."

MUMBAI, Friday, AP