Two child artists wont be left alone: Slumdog producers

Producers of the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire are contemplating "systematic protection mechanism" for the two slum-children artists in the film and they wont be "left alone" in their life.

They want something more professional to be put in place to look after Azaruddin Mohammed, 10, and Rubina Ali Qureshi, 9, the child actors in the film who attended the Oscars with six other children who are from better off families.

"They (Azharuddin and Rubina) are not being left alone - their lives are being disrupted," film producer Christian Colson said last night.

"We need a more systematic protection mechanism in place for them. The profile of the film is high and will remain high, we can't assume attention on these children will drift away."

Colson has also suggested setting up a stage musical based on the film to help generate money for poor children in Mumbai and the the film-makers set fund has so far raised half a million pounds.

It was "imperative that the welfare of the children is in the hands of experts and not well-intentional inexperts", he told The Times. "It is important that we do right by these kids."