The youngsters have now been promised new homes by the film’s Oscar winning director Danny Boyle.

Boyle and producer Christian Colson told the Daily Mail that Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubina Ali and their families will be moved to apartments worth £20,000 each in the coming months.

And in an astonishing turn of events, officials from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority - a Mumbai housing association - have now also said they want to gift the children a new flat each.

There was a public outcry after pictures emerged of the child stars still living in squalor, despite the fact the film had grossed £70million worldwide.

One showed ten year-old Azharuddin sleeping on a rotting makeshift mat - a bed he shared with his parents - while another featured him crouched down by rubbish, washing in dirty water.

The shack that Rubina, who plays the young heroine Letika, calls home is just yards from an open sewer. Colson and Boyle told the Daily Mail the children and their families are looking at new apartments on the edge of the area where they live. Boyle told the Daily Mail: ‘These are bricks and mortar flats. They will have electricity, running water and good sanitation.

'They will still be close to their friends and extended family. 'Their community is very important to them, and they don’t want to move too far away from them. They have looked at a number of places but like anyone choosing a home, it is taking some time for them to agree on a final one.’

The film company has also agreed to pay for a rickshaw driver to take the children to and from school every day for the next eight years – to ensure they attend.

Last night, the MHADA said it too felt the child stars should be rewarded with a proper place to live. The organisation’s chairman, Amarjeet Singh Manhas, said: 'These children have made the country proud and have an equal hand in the film winning the Oscar. These children are special and have won laurels for the country and we want to felicitate them.'

They were unable to give details on the size and location of the flats and critics accused the authority of offering the free flats as a political move ahead of the general election in April/May.
Colson said that the offer from Mumbai officials was a separate one to the proposals he and Boyle had drawn up.

Rubina’s father Rafiq Qureshi said: ‘It means so much for us to get a proper flat. For three generations we have been living in this slum and we might finally get out of here. It is not a proper place to live and it is always under threat from demolition.’

Colson and Boyle have always denied any claim the children were exploited by Slumdog Millionaire.
After filming completed last year, they set up a raft of measures to safeguard their long-term future including a trust fund and sending them to a local school.

They now admit that the plans have not worked in the way they had hoped and more needs to be done to help the youngsters, who many feel are the real stars of Oscar-winning film.

Azharuddin, who plays the young version of the lead character’s brother Salim, and his parents live in flimsy structure made of tarpaulins and blankets in the overcrowded Behrampada shanty area.

The family is worse off now than when Slumdog Millionaire was being filmed because the illegal hut they were living in has been demolished by the local council. Colson told the Daily Mail: ‘The way Azharuddin is living now is substandard. We were told his home was razed a few months ago, and wired money over immediately.

‘The family gave that money to a broker, who promised to find them a new place to live, but has simply disappeared with the cash.’ ‘We realized just sending money is not the answer and have evolved our plans over the past few weeks. The families are not equipped to cope with that sort of money.’

Producers will instead put the properties in a trust and ownership will only be released to the parents when the children turn 18. ‘We can’t buy the properties outright and give them to them, because in all honesty they will sell them,’ he said. ‘What we are doing is to acquire the flats for them, near the community where they fit in.

‘They will be held in trusts and ownership will only be released to the parents when the kids turn 18 and have completed their education,’ said Colson.

LOL why is Older Salim included with the kids? I guess Dev and Frida got to do grown-up stuff, but not him!

so the other kids get nothing?

Anyone else thinks that Danny Boyle looks creepy?

Only days after walking down the red carpet in Hollywood the ten-year-old film star was slapped and kicked by dad, Ismail, after refusing to be put on display like a trophy.

One onlooker said: "It was like a scene out of Slumdog Millionaire."

The lad's dad has since apologised for striking his son.

“I was very sorry that I did what I did,” said the repentant father.

“I was so confused and stressed by my son’s homecoming that I did not know myself for a minute. I love my boy and I am very happy to have him home.”

The ugly scenes, which lasted no more than 30 seconds, broke out at around midday today Indian time in the Dharavi slum in Bandra, Mumbai.

Azharuddin, who had been given a day off school, was tired after his long haul flight from LA and prolonged hero’s welcome amid a media scrum yesterday.

And when he refused to be put on display outside his home this afternoon, his father lashed out, kicking and slapping him round the face.

His mother cried out for him to stop, but Ismail continued to dish out the physical punishment to the child-star.

Azharuddin stood up to his dad, flaring the temper of the 45-year-old, who launched himself at the lad shamelessly.

Azharuddin yelped out as he tried to evade the older man's flailing hands and feet.

He dashed into the tent that makes up his family home, followed by his father, where the young Slumdog star tried to cower in the corner.

Azharuddin grabbed his face in pain and then ran off to cry.

“Azharruddin’s father was upset that he was asking to be left alone because he was tired,” said one shocked onlooker.

“He didn’t attend school today so that he could recover from his long flight from LA and simply wanted all the attention to stop.

“However, when Azharuddin put his foot down and said that was it and there was to be no more talking, Ismail just flipped.

“It was like a scene out of Slumdog Millionaire.”

Talking only moments before his father’s attack, Azharuddin spoke of his tiredness due to the long flight.

“I do not want to speak today to any reporters,” he said.

Does anyone else feel like the title of this thread implies that Danny Boyle is sucking some eight-year-old cock?

Oh, but now the hate campaign is even more needed now.

Azhar, 10, spent the weekend vomiting and has developed a temperature of 103 degrees since returning home last week after travelling to the Oscars with co-star Rubina Ali, 9.

He has been prescribed antibiotics by doctors, who said he is suffering from fever and exhaustion, but his condition has continued to worsen.

Azhar's neighbours have also rallied round to build an 8ft by 5ft metal structure for him to sleep under out of the sun.

The families of the two child stars have said their children are not readjusting to life back in the slums after five days of glitz and glamour in Los Angeles.

Mother Shameem Ismail said: "It has all become too much for him. He is very ill and has not recovered from going to America and all the media interest since we got back."

Rubina's father Rafiq Qureshi said. "Getting used to life back here in the slum again is proving tough for her and she has not wanted to see her friends since she got back. She just wants to spend all her time away from the slum now and I just hope we get the flat that has been promised to us.":

Both the Mumbai housing authority and Slumdog's producer Christian Colson have said they are going to provide proper flats for the two families. However, as yet the families have been told nothing and remain in the deprived slum.

Azhar, cuddling his new pet guinea pig, said: "I am very sad. I feel sleepy, hot and sick all the time. I can't get to sleep here – there are too many mosquitoes and it is so hot. I just wish I was in America still."

Having flown in a plane, slept in a soft bed and used a clean and functioning bathroom for the first time in their lives at a five-star hotel, the kids say they have now realised what life is like on the other side of the coin and the reality of being back in the slum is hitting them hard.

"I don't want to live here in the slum anymore," Rubina said, wearing the dirt stained ball gown that she has not wanted to take off since Oscars night. "I don't want to sleep on the floor anymore. I want a proper bed and live where the air does not smell of poo. I have seen what it is like in America. Here, there is garbage everywhere, people get angry, swear and shout. I have realised how bad life is here. I just want to get out."

Social workers have called for the children to be placed in care and state that they need to be given protection – either from Danny Boyle and the film production company or the Indian authorities.

"I cannot believe these kids have just been left like this after being taken to Hollywood. It is bound to affect them psychologically," said social worker Sanjay Bhatia, who works in the slum.

India's Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhary is "appalled" at the beating that Azhar took at the hands of his father on Friday. Azhar was thrashed for saying he wanted to sleep rather than talk to a journalist who had offered money to his father.

"I don't want to live here in the slum anymore," Rubina said, wearing the dirt stained ball gown that she has not wanted to take off since Oscars night. "I don't want to sleep on the floor anymore. I want a proper bed and live where the air does not smell of poo. I have seen what it is like in America. Here, there is garbage everywhere, people get angry, swear and shout. I have realised how bad life is here. I just want to get out."

Maybe they should get a job then.

In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.

As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World's undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future."

Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for SALE.

As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, real-life slum dweller Rafiq declared: "We've got nothing out of this film."

Then, almost embarrassed to speak it out loud, he whispered to an accomplice the price tag he has put on his innocent young daughter: "It's £200,000!"

That was an astonishing FOURFOLD increase on his opening demand. But Rafiq's equally demanding brother Mohiuddin insisted: "The child is special now. This is NOT an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!"

WHY IS THIS DOCUMENTARY NOT BEING MADE?!?!??!!?!?!?