Mumbai’s Slumdog Millionaire location offers poor Indian kids hope in form of hip hop, acting and coding
- Disadvantaged children from Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, where Slumdog Millionaire was partly filmed, are getting the chance to learn a new skill
- A number of dance, arts and acting initiatives are helping the personal development of children in the area
Vikram Gaja, 18, is not taking classes to prepare for exams, or fretting over a career like many urban teenagers in India. Instead, he spends his time teaching hip hop to youngsters in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, participating in nationwide “dance battles”, and supporting his parents with the income he earns as an instructor.
“He is one of the best B-boys [breakdancers] from Dharavi,” says Sunil Rayana, co-owner of SlumGods of Mumbai, a collective of hip-hop artists in the city.
Gaja joined SlumGods in 2013 after he met its founders Vicky and Akash Dhangar. The siblings began teaching hip hop to youngsters in an open area of the slum. The name is a spin on the 2009 Hollywood blockbuster Slumdog Millionaire, filmed partly in Dharavi, where up to one million people live in an area of about 216 hectares [535 acres].
“I watched them for days but couldn’t muster the courage to ask if I could learn with them,” Gaja recalls.
His parents were not keen on him joining because they wouldn’t be able to pay his medical bills if he broke a bone, and they were concerned he might end up mixing with the wrong crowd.
“It is quite common to find young boys chewing tobacco, smoking or doing drugs in Dharavi,” Gaja says.