All the leading actors of Slumdog Millionaire - including the two impoverished children who had a central role in the movie - will attend the Oscars Sunday and take the stage to accept the award if the movie wins the best picture prize, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The decision was taken at the last minute after the film's producers and director Danny Boyle had earlier worried that taking the kids to the Hollywood glitter-fest might further complicate the lives of the two children cast from Mumbai's slums, according to dpa.
The young Indian stars in question are Rubina Ali, who plays the film's childhood version of the female lead, Latika, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, who plays her childhood friend Salim, the boy who grows up, wows India with his performance on a big-bucks quiz show and wins the grown-up Latika's heart.
The film's other young actors are middle- and upper-class residents of either India or England.
Fox Searchlight, which produced the film, said the company had eventually decided to invite and pay for transportation of the film's entire cast, rather than bringing in a select few.
"We decided it was better to include everybody," said Michelle Hooper, publicity chief of Fox Searchlight.
In addition to Ali and Ismail, the other young actors set to attend the Oscars are Freida Pinto, who played the adult Latika, Dev Patel, who played the adult Salim, Madhur Mittal, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Tanay Chheda and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar.