Due to Afghan mores concerning male rape, Paramount Vantage agreed to relocate the young actors out of the country to the United Arab Emirates and arrange visas, housing and schooling for the young actors and jobs for their guardians. Paramount Vantage accepts responsibility for the living expenses of Zekeria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, Ali Danish Bakhtyari and Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada until they reach adulthood, a cost some estimated at up to $500,000.
In the DVD commentary, Marc Forster said he insisted that the Afghani characters speak Dari to make the film as authentic as possible. Author Khaled Hosseini says "Iran and Afghanistan share a language. They call it Farsi in Iran, and we call it Dari in Afghanistan. It's essentially the same language, but the accent is very different." The man at the soccer game speaks in Pashto, Afghanistan's other main language.
In the DVD commentary, David Benioff said Uncle Saifo's lines in Dari are completely different from the English subtitles. Director Marc Forster said that the improvisation technique was common among the Afghan actors, many of whom weren't professional actors.
Author Khaled Hosseini describes the filming (in Kashgar, China) of the Kabul kite tournament scenes: "There weren't actually any kites in the sky. We were just kind of looking up at these strings going up to these cables and hanging from the other side there were water bottles to give the string a sense of tension." To which director Marc Forster adds "Yes, because we had no wind." CG kites were added in post-production.
Author Khaled Hosseini mentions in the commentary that the name on the door "Dr. Amani" is his homage to his medical school roommate. He mentions in the documentary "Words from the Kite Runner" also on the DVD that he, himself, was a practicing physician for eight and a half years before choosing to concentrate on writing after 'The Kite Runner' book became successful.