Director Danny Boyle placed the money to be paid to the 3 lead child actors in a trust that is to be released to them upon their completion of grade school at 16 years of age. The production company has set up for an auto-rikshaw driver to take the kids to school every day until they are 16 years old.
The pile of excreta that the young Jamal jumps into was made from a combination of peanut butter and chocolate.
When viewers objected to the term "Slumdog" as racist-sounding, director Danny Boyle explained that it wasn't; the word is a combination of Jamal's twin standings as a "slum-dweller" and an "underdog."
Danny Boyle originally wanted Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan -- who had hosted the final season of Kaun Banega Crorepati? (2000) (the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (1998)) -- to play the game show host, but the actor was not available. The actor who plays the host, Anil Kapoor, was a guest on the show and won 5,000,000 Rupees.
This is Dev Patel's and Freida Pinto's first feature film roles. Not only did they play a couple onscreen, they shared a real-life relationship until late 2014.
Danny Boyle: [Scotland] The first customer Jamal speaks to while working on the phones at the call center is an irate Scottish woman who lives in Kingussie, Inverness.