Casting

Gail Stevens came on board to see oversee casting global. Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well-known for discovering new talent. Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US. The film-makers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat. 

Loveleen Tandnan was appointed one of the five casting directors and said "I suggested to Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy that it was important to put some of the film in Hindi to bring the film alive...They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogue which I instantly agreed to do. And as we drew closer to the shoot date, Danny asked me to step in as the co-director." Boyle then decided to translate a third of the film's English dialogue into Hindi. He asked for the dialogue to be 10% Hindi and the president of Warner Independent approved of the change. 

The main actors in the film, Jamal and Lakita, portrayed by Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are both British-Indian actors that were relatively well-known actor before Slumdog Millionaire - Dev Patel was a main character in the BAFTA-winning Skins, who was discovered by Danny Boyle when his daughter pointed him out to her dad. Freida Pinto was a model for four years appearing in multiple advertisements, but Slumdog was her breakthrough. Due to this, it became an advantage because the film would win a large audience of young people.