Posted on 04/20/2009 9:15:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The father of a Slumdog Millionaire child actress has denied trying to sell her in what he called a "dirty" undercover operation by a UK newspaper.
Rafiq Qureshi said he had not accepted a deal to sell nine-year-old Rubina Ali into adoption.
The News of the World said Mr Qureshi had demanded £200,000 from its reporters, who were posing as a wealthy family from Dubai looking to adopt.
Mr Qureshi told the BBC the media had "made fun of our poverty".
"They tricked us into this fakery but we came out unscathed," said Rubina's father, who is a carpenter in Mumbai (Bombay).
Rubina portrays the youngest version of the leading lady Latika in the Oscar-laden film.
'Great temptation'
The News of the World said one of its staff had contacted Mr Qureshi and told him he was acting for a wealthy Arab sheikh who wanted to adopt Rubina and take her to live in Dubai.
It said Mr Qureshi's brother-in-law, Rajan More, who speaks better English, had talked of "around £50,000" in compensation.
The paper said that in a later meeting Mr Qureshi tried to increase this to £200,000 ($292,000).
It said Mr Qureshi was unhappy with the money received from the film and wanted an escape route out of the slums.
The newspaper published photographs of Rubina and her father in a meeting with its reporters.
Mr Qureshi agreed to speak to the BBC News website on Monday.
In a lengthy interview, he said he had been trapped into a situation of "great temptation" but he firmly denied accepting any deal to sell his daughter or agree for her to be adopted.
Rafiq Qureshi and Rubina Ali in February "My daughter is not for sale," said Mr Qureshi
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
SlumDog definitely was a film that showed the horrors of that pissant country. I feel bad for anybody who had to live there.
Alert me when Tom Cruise trys to sell Katie. I’ll put in a bid.
So, was it more like a rental or what?
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