--- title: The Real Slum of 'Slumdog' | TIME description: Dharavi in Mumbai is Asia's biggest slum and the location for 'Slumdog Millionaire.’ A new development plan may force many of its residents to move canonical: https://time.com/video/mPurOrqB/ og:title: The Real Slum of 'Slumdog' og:description: Dharavi in Mumbai is Asia's biggest slum and the location for 'Slumdog Millionaire.’ A new development plan may force many of its residents to move og:url: https://time.com/video/mPurOrqB/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mPurOrqB/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Real Slum of 'Slumdog' twitter:description: Dharavi in Mumbai is Asia's biggest slum and the location for 'Slumdog Millionaire.’ A new development plan may force many of its residents to move twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mPurOrqB/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Real Slum of 'Slumdog' > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Real Slum of 'Slumdog' [Watch (HLS stream): The Real Slum of 'Slumdog'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mPurOrqB.m3u8) (3:07)  _Published 2009-02-18. Dharavi in Mumbai is Asia's biggest slum and the location for 'Slumdog Millionaire.’ A new development plan may force many of its residents to move_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:06 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Will the World Cup Help Brazil's Slums?](/video/QyjUrZJi/) ### Will the World Cup Help Brazil's Slums? [Fleeing Catastrophe, Stuck in the Slums of Bangladesh](/video/W1kFr09K/) ### Fleeing Catastrophe, Stuck in the Slums of Bangladesh [Slumdog Millionaire Opens in India](/video/u8LhTxMD/) ### _Slumdog Millionaire_ Opens in India --- ## Transcript >> Dharavi [ unk ] nowadays are filled with machine shops, recycling plant and makeshift home for almost more than a million people. If these alleys look familiar, you may have seen them in the movie theater. This Mumbai neighborhood was the location for Slumdog Millionaire, a cinema's sensation with 10 Oscar Nominations. Ravi Mishra is a translator and guide who spent part of his youth living in Dharavi. >> In such a small area, you've got like population of one million people. If you talk about Mumbai's population, the 55 percent of the population of Mumbai living in slum and you wouldn't believe they are just using 2 percent of the land. >> But that two percent it turns out some of the city's most desirable land. This month, around the time of the Oscars, developers will be presenting their vision for Dharavi. If the government approves the plan, the slum will be transformed into a mixed- income residential and commercial neighborhood. >> This slum is a bit different from some other slums in different ways. And one of the main reason what it makes it different from the other slum is the production here because in this slum like you've got a lots of industries. There are more than 10, 000 different small scale industries-- the production of $ 665 million which is something around 3, 000 dollar rupees. So this is what makes it different from other slums. >> Residents and advocates are split on whether the development plan is a good idea for Dharavi. Living conditions will improve but it's unclear how the redevelopment will affect the thousands of businesses and the people who work and live in this dense slum. >> It's a place like, as I've told you, like you've got one million people living in here and they're all like from different castes, different religion and different parts of country and they're all living together here. So there's a great sense of community here, you know. People are just living in like 432 acres. This is not such a big area. -[ Foreign Language ]. -[ Foreign Language ]. >> This is what Dharavi is. There is poverty like while walking on the street and you might have seen those also open air drains and, you know, some boys with no clothes. But still like, you might have seen like people are happy, you know. You can't see anybody's lying or anybody's have been sad or doing nothing. They're all are doing something, you know. So that's why, you know, this place is different and this place is different from the imagination of people, more people think in their mind, you know. People think that they don't do anything or they are sad. But here again, it's like everybody's happy and everybody's quite welcoming. 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