Director Danny Boyle is not your run-of-the mill film maker. His portfolio includes the bitter smile of human tragedy that is Trainspotting, controversial (if that epithet can be applied at all to a) zombie movie 28 Days Later and not-so-notable DiCaprio movie The Beach. Boyle has been all over the place with the subject matter of his films, but now he’s returning to his roots of finding beauty in misery with his latest production Slumdog Millionaire, which is hitting theaters today.

Now, unlike the previous Boyle movies, this one doesn’t tout any big names on the poster. The cast is made up of non-professional actors. Boyle instead chose to make the film’s greatest star ''Mumbai [itself], which, like New York, is pulsating with the enormous arteries of life... Mumbai is an extraordinary force but you are never the same. I came to New York in the '80s and felt, 'Young man, you'll never be the same.'''

The movie tells the story of pauper orphan Jamal Malik (who is played by English actor of Indian heritage Dev Patel) who lives in the massive slums of Mumbai. He plays the biggest game show in the world, India’s version of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,'' and manages to win the top prize, something that had never been done before.

Since the game was never designed to be won, authorities assume he cheated to do so, and torture him. He didn’t cheat, but did hijack the show to find his love Latika (played by Freida Pinto), another street urchin.

Boyle had originally expected to have the torture scene cut but to his surprise the Indian government approved it ''as long as no one above the rank of inspector was in it.''

Although the script was initially written in English, Boyle soon realized that making it in India didn’t work with the language. The movie was translated to Hindi, which Boyle said ''made it come alive.''

Boyle shocked Warner Brothers, which financed the film, with the casual note that the movie was now one third in Hindi, but his defiant attitude doesn’t end here. It’s also evident in the way the movie was made. His team applied for permission to do shots from the sky, which due to Mumbai’s naval bases, is a touchy issue. It took 14 months to get the approval, by which times the shots had been long completed.

''They have this head wobble in India, which can mean yes and can mean no and everything in between, so that's the answer to your permit question,'' he said.

He also got additional shots of the Taj Mahal by posing a crew as a German documentary group. This is guerilla filmmaking par excellence.

Boyle originally wanted to cast Bollywood stars, but the problem with them was that they were all ''ripped and were in gyms all the time.'' Boyle was looking for someone who ''looks lonely, vulnerable and fragile.''

The idea of casting Dev Patel came from his daughter, who had seen the British teen drama ''Skins'' where he was cast. Patel was definitely his man, but they initially had the small problem of his overprotective mother who went everywhere with him. Boyle warned him that ''I am casting you as a romantic lead, you can't bring your mom. ... She backed off and he emerged.''

The best thing about making this movie, according to Boyle, was filming in the slums of Mumbai. He found the experience incredible, because despite the negative connotation of the word ‘Slums’ in the west, they are in reality amazing places with extraordinary people who didn't want to be pitied.'' The movie does not sugarcoat any of the goings-on, showing the abject poverty and harsh cruelty and striking contrasts which are a staple of India. ''Human excrement is in a lot of places (in the slums). It's part of life there,'' he said. ''Another part of life is that movie stars are deities. You smash the elements together all the time. ... Life is everything and life is nothing in India. How do you reconcile it? You don't. You can leave India but it never leaves you.''

To Boyle, the best scene is that where Jamal is being taken back to the show to answer the final 20 million rupee question. As he sits in the police car, stuck in traffic, a beggar woman taps on the window. She doesn’t ask for money, and simply says ''good luck.''

''That's India,'' Boyle said. ''It's full of big love. The scene still makes me well up. That woman was really a street person who gave it her all.''

The movie is already being rumored as a possible Academy Award winner, and Boyle is amazed by that. Trainspotting, which is arguably Boyle’s best film won a BAFTA award for best screenplay, and was nominated for an Academy Award, but none of his films ever won one. It would be a first for the Irish director, and a well-deserved recognition.