Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail

Like his on-screen character, Azaruddin came from one of the slums of Mumbai, living in the Garib Nagar slum near Bandra station. According to The Daily Telegraph, "his family's illegal hut was demolished by the local authorities and he now sleeps under a sheet of plastic tarpaulin". In 2020 the Mumbai Mirror published an article about Azharuddin which revealed he was living in the slums again after his business went bankrupt. His mother also revealed he became a drug addict.

Both Azharuddin and Rubina attended the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009, along with all of the other actors that played Salim, Jamal and Latika. Azharuddin was accompanied by his mother Shameem Ismail, while Rubina was accompanied by her uncle. This was his first journey outside of Mumbai.

Following the success of Slumdog Millionaire at the 2009 Academy Awards the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority have recommended the children be rehoused, with an official saying the children had "brought laurels to the country" and deserved to be rewarded. On 25 February 2009, the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority announced that Azharuddin as well as Rubina would be given "free houses" so that they would no longer have to live in the Mumbai slum of Garib Nagar.

In March 2009, Azharuddun was part of the cast in the Bollywood film Kal Kisne Dekha (2009), alongside his Slumdog Millionaire co-star Rubina Ali. The film was directed by Vivek Sharma and features the Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Rishi Kapoor and Juhi Chawla in cameo roles.

On 26 January 2009, Danny Boyle (director) and Christian Colson (producer) released a written statement saying that they had "paid painstaking and considered attention to how Azhar and Rubina's involvement in the film could be of lasting benefit to them over and above the payment they received for their work". Boyle and Colson have stated that they have "set up trust funds for Rubina and Azharuddin and paid for their education," although the exact amount of the trust funds is not known. This has also been met with criticism as there is question as to how children growing up in the slums have any expectation of being able to attend higher education, making the trust fund potentially useless.

In May 2009, it was reported that local authorities had demolished his family's makeshift shelter, and that police had forced him out of it after hitting him with a bamboo stick. Authorities stated that "he and other families were squatting on land that was owned by the government". After the demolition, he described himself and his family as "homeless, we have nowhere to go". However, Azharuddin and his family moved into a new home in the Santa Cruz area of Mumbai, purchased by a trust set up by the film's producers.

Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail (Urdu: اظہر الدین محمد اسماعیل ‎, Hindi: अजहरुद्दीन मोहम्मद इस्माइल ) (born 1998) is a former Indian child actor, who played the youngest version of Salim Malik in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award. Following the film's success, he has been cast in the Bollywood film Kal Kisne Dekha (2009).