The cultural venues that risk losing their council funding include the Theatre Royal, Live Theatre, Northern Stage, Seven Stories children's book centre and Dance City.
The huge cast of Midnight's Children includes Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas, Rahul Bose, Charles Dance, Shriya Saran and Shahana Goswami, besides newcomer Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai and southern Indian star Siddharth as Shiva.