Sonkar says : `` She used to go to school and the kids would not befriend her . She would say , ' I do n't want to go to school . ' '' Watch how Pinki was transformed by the operation '' `` Pinki was a depressed , sad , lonely , shy , young little girl , growing up on the periphery of the society in a little village , '' said Satish Kalra , director of Smile Train 's South Asian region , after meeting with Pinki . The little girl 's own family was ashamed of her , Kalra says . But all of that has changed . Pinki is now a real pistol , full of energy and confidence , and she has a fantastic smile too -- thanks to the Smile Train charity . Smile Train teaches doctors in their own countries to operate on cleft lips , a deformity afflicting up to four million children across the world . iReport : Share your Oscar predictions Pinki just happened to be one of the chosen candidates for surgery and was also chosen to be the subject of the documentary . The film chronicles her
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- While all eyes seem to be on `` Slumdog Millionaire '' for the Oscars , one very courageous little girl will be focused on another India-based film at the ceremony . Pinki , like millions in developing countries , had to live with her deformity and suffer the social consequences . It 's called '' Smile Pinki , '' and it 's up for an Oscar , too -- nominated for best short documentary , which it won on Sunday . The little girl watching it from inside the Oscar ceremony has traveled all the way to Los Angeles , California , from her small Indian village with her dad -- and it has been an incredible journey for Pinki Sonkar . `` Smile Pinki '' tells the story of her transformation from a sad outcast to a vibrant 8-year-old with plenty of spunk . Pinki was born with a cleft lip , and her impoverished family did not have the money for corrective surgery . Like millions of other children born with the lip deformity in developing countries , Pinki simply had to live with it and suffer the social consequences . Her father Rajendra