Slumdog Millionaire stars Dev Patel and Freida Pinto is now a couple - Patel’s mother Anita has revealed to Daily Mirror. Why the buzz on this hook-up? Well, Pinto was supposedly engaged to Rohan Antao from 2007 to January 2009. Frieda and Antao has been dating since 2003, years before Pinto got her big break in Hollywood, but broke up just after Pinto started winning awards for Slumdog.

Mrs. Patel said, “First it was the film and now everything else seems to have slotted into place. Life can’t get any better for him. Freida is really beautiful, and I am really happy for them.” After Patel and Pinto was seen enjoying each other’s company around Israel, Patel’s mom confirmed, “Yes, we knew he was flying to Israel to see her.”

Pinto, who was filming her new movie in Jerusalem, took time off from work to join her beau Patel in Tel Aviv. According to reports, the couple spent several hours together in a hotel before emerging for a stroll around the harbor to enjoy an early champagne dinner at a seaside restaurant.

Onlookers have said that Pinto couldn’t keep her hands off Patel, holding Patel’s hands and smooching at the table.  Shortly afterward, Dev Patel took a cab to the airport and went back to London, leaving Pinto to return at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem.

The new couple played childhood sweethearts in the Oscar-winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire.” Since then, an alleged on-screen affair between the two has been the subject of rumor mills, particularly when co-star Anil Kapoor hinted they were romantically involved. Both Patel and Pinto has denied a relationship beyond friendship.