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'Slumdog Millionaire' boosts Mumbai's 'slum tourism' industry
London:
'Slumdog Millionaire' might have been criticised for
portraying India as "third world dirty underbelly", but
the success of the film has bolstered Mumbai's controversial
"slum tourism" industry. An increasing number of Westerners
are shunning the beaches of Goa and palaces of Rajasthan
to experience the reality behind British film. "Everybody
is talking about Slumdog," Times Online quoted Ganesh
Tikonkar, a guide for Reality Tours. This company takes
about 50 people a day through Dharavi, Asia's biggest
slum. "Now people want to see the real thing," he added.
The foreigners are spending three hours following Tikonkar
to explore the life of slum dwellers. The film, which
has won four Golden Globe Awards and is the frontrunner
at the Oscars, tracks the story of Jamal Malik, a dirt-poor
orphan from the slums who astonishes India when he does
well on the country's version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'
The "highlights" of Dharavi expedition include a stop
at a stall of six toilets that serves 16,000 people and
a stroll alongside a river so black and septic that it
oozes rather than flows. "The movie is a fairytale. This
trip shows things are a little darker, a little grittier
in reality," said Bill Alves from Seattle, who is retired
and went on the tour after seeing the film. The Dharavi
expedition is part of a new tourism that is gaining traction
across the developing world. The advocates say that the
Dharavi expedition help to illuminate the slum's qualities.
"Yes, these places have their grim side, but many people
who go on the tours are surprised to find thriving, diverse
communities, who live together peacefully," said Deval
Sanghavi, of Deval, a Mumbai-based NGO. These excursions
are also proving beneficial for the slum inhabitants,
for 80 per cent of the Reality Tours profits, the company
that takes people to the expedition, are spent on social
schemes in Dharavi.
-Jan
22, 2009
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