No, it's funny how we found him. He was a part of Raell Padmasee's theatre workshop. When the film was to be made in English, I had gotten in touch with Raell's workshop people and they had sent a lot of kids over. Tanmay didn't come that day because he had exams. TZP hadn't come out yet - it released in December, and we started shooting in November. So I hadn't seen the film, didn't know the child. We found him in Campion school finally.

Did Ayush, who you cast for the youngest version of Jamal, dread the scene where he is shown jumping into a pit of excreta?

Not at all. I used this scene for testing this age group -- where Jamal is locked in the toilet and cannot get out, but he's dying to get out so that he can meet Amitabh Bachchan and get an autograph. Kids can immediately relate to this, or find it funny and interesting.

Ayush is a Hindi-speaking child, so he was basically communicating with me, not with Danny. I told him and his parents about the scene, and that we would use chocolate sauce and peanut butter to make that scene.

What made you cast Anil Kapoor? Why not Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan, who have hosted the Kaun Banega Crorepati show?

We never approached them because the part is not Amitabh or Shah Rukh, it is Prem Kumar. Amitabh and Shah Rukh are gracious KBC hosts, with a great fan following. Prem Kumar wasn't that. He was a devious host, not the gracious superstar host. It just didn't feel right to go with Amitabh or Shah Rukh.

Anil Kapoor fit the bill perfectly, and was my first choice. It had to be a good actor with a certain star status, because with that comes the flamboyance and confidence that Prem Kumar needs. Anil Kapoor could be a superstar and yet get insecure of an 18-year-old boy. There's a scene in the bathroom where he tells Jamal that I know what you're feeling because I became a superstar out of nothing overnight. Even in real life, Anil always calls himself a Chembur (a northcentral Mumbai suburb) boy, even today. I've known that about him.

What is Danny Boyle like?

He's an amazing man. It's rare to find that kind of vision and passion for cinema. He's always trying to get the best out of himself. It's so infectious, that you feel like giving your best to the film. Even as a human being, he's so generous and embracing of other people, their talent and culture.

He picked up a lot of cultural details when we went location hunting as well. The film wasn't entirely shot in Dharavi (Asia's biggest slum). We also shot along the pipelines in Mahim and Mulund (north Mumbai). (Screenplay writer) Simon Beaufoy, (producer) Christian Colson, Danny and I would go page by page, and discuss how we would play each scene out, and whether it was culturally correct. I'm happy that I could make that kind of contribution.

What was working in the slums like?

Their lives are not very different from ours. There's a lot of dignity and celebration of life in the slums. One of the important elements was that we couldn't stop lives the way it existed there in order to create what we wanted to create. We had to fit into that life. The idea was not to block out their reality, but to assimilate everything and capture their reality the way it exists.

We didn't go with heavy cameras; we went with small digital cameras. They were not obstructive or intrusive. We would go in batches, and only people that needed to be there would be on set.

The people in the slums were very cooperative. Since we didn't have big Bollywood stars, the curiosity level died down after a while. People realised that there was no Shah Rukh or Hrithik Roshan but just a bunch of kids. They became very friendly, and would offer us chai and water.

How difficult was it handling the crowds?

The crowd is a process in itself, anywhere in Mumbai. Wherever you go, you have to encounter that -- but when you don't have big stars, the curiosity level wanes. But yes, there were crowds everywhere. We had a group of young people keeping the sound to a minimum in that small space; that was very challenging.

Also Read: Slumdog Millionaire is just a masala film

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