Rubina Ali, a 9-year-old Mumbai girl who appeared in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, denies her father tried to sell her.

Police in India say they are investigating a report that Rafiq Qureshi attempted to sell his daughter, 9-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali.

Rubina Ali's father said he doesn't intend to sell the 9-year-old Mumbai-born Slumdog Millionaire actress, despite a report that he tried to do so. The News of the World said during the weekend that Rafiq Qureshi, Rubina's father, met with reporters posing as a wealthy Dubai family seeking to adopt the child and demanded nearly $300,000 in compensation, allegedly stating he was dissatisfied with what the Slumdog filmmakers had paid Rubina for her work on the Oscar-winning movie. The newspaper also published photographs of Rubina and her father meeting with its undercover journalists. Qureshi admitted to the BBC News Web site Monday that he felt he was backed into a situation of great temptation, but he emphatically denied making a deal to sell his daughter or allow her to be adopted. In the phone calls they said a wealthy Arab couple had been moved to see the plight of Rubina on al-Jazeera TV, he explained.

The father of Indian actress Rubina Ali allegedly is trying to sell the young Slumdog Millionaire star through an illegal adoption, British media reported. The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday that Ali's father, Rafiq Qureshi, was quoted as saying in a telephone conversation with an unidentified individual that he would agree to an illegal adoption of his 9-year-old daughter. We are considering Rubina's future, Qureshi allegedly said. Qureshi allegedly details how the makers of Slumdog have failed to adequately compensate his family for his daughter's role in the Oscar-winning movie. We've got nothing out of this film.