I honestly had not heard much about the Oscar winning film until it’s ten nominations from the Academy. In the weeks preceeding the Academy Awards Show, there was much to do about the film and its cast, the Slumdog Millionaire kids were all over the media. And now that they have walked the red carpet and the film has taken home eight Academy Awards, those kids are becoming increasingly more intriguing. So, who are they? How did they reach super-stardom?

Actor Dev Patel plays the lead role of Jamal Malik; the stages of life for Jamal are played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (Young Jamal) and Tanay Hemant Chheda (Middle Jamal). Madhur Mittal plays the part of Salim; the stages of his life are played by Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail Sheikh (Young Salim) and  Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala (Middle Salim). Freida Pinto plays Latika; the childhood stages are played by Rubina Ali (Young Latika) and Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar (Middle Latika)

The poorest of the castmates, Azharuddin Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali, eight, currently live in appalling conditions in one of Mumbai’s most squalid areas. Azharuddin lives with his mother, who is blind in one eye, and his father, a tuberculosis-sufferer, by the side of a bustling road in a lean-to of tarpaulin sheets because they cannot afford a house. Rubina lives in a one-room bubble-gum pink tin shack next to train tracks, with an open sewer running past her door. It is estimated that about 65 million Indians, roughly a quarter of the urban population, live in slums.

The two youngest Slumdog stars were plucked straight from the slums. Casting agents discovered Rubina and Azharuddin in the ghastly Garib Nagar slum and cast them to star in the film’s opening scenes. The children were paid for 30 days of acting work, the families were given a small monthly stipend and trust funds were set up for Rubina and Azhar to access once they graduate. The children’s families have also been given a “flat” by the Mumbai Housing Authority. It is a chance to get out of the slums and into a real house.

“These two children have brought laurels to the country,” said Gautam Chatterjee, head of Mumbai’s housing authority.