Natl Assoc for the Advancement of Slumdogs Protest Their Depiction in Oscar Frontrunner

With Slumdog Millionaire’s staggering success comes increased scrutiny—specifically over what some call the overly sensationalised depictions of the poop-dipped hardships befalling India’s extreme poor. Now, one Indian poverty advocate is actually suing the movie:

From The Guardian:

The petitioner, Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, is the general secretary of the Jhuggi Jhonpdi Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti, a group that seeks to promote the rights of slum dwellers. He is seeking to have the film banned.

“Vishwakarma requested the court to protect the honour and respect of millions of slum dwellers across India,” his lawyer Shruti Singh told the Indo Asian News Service.

“What hurt him was that even Indians associated with the film [did not object to being called] slumdogs,” Ms Singh said.

This is the second year in a row where an Oscar hopeful about the plight of Indian slum-dwellers has stirred controversy: The subject of last year’s Best Documentary Short Subject nominee Salim Baba—a man who pushes a “cinema cart” around Mumbai’s poorest neighbourhoods—later said in an interview he had been exploited. Singh’s Slumdog crusade, meanwhile, isn’t likely expected to garner much sympathy from India’s courts, regardless of how eloquently he argues that it be retitled with the far more sensitive, Who Wants to Be a Virginal Child Sex Worker?

• Slum dweller sues stars of Slumdog Millionaire for insulting the poor [Guardian]