Jamal (Dev Patel, left) is grilled by a police inspector (Irfan Khan) in a scene from Slumdog Millionaire. (Ishika Mohan/Fox Searchlight)

Slumdog Millionaire is getting a poor reception in India, the very country in which the Oscar-nominated film is set.

Not only has the film failed to capture the imaginations of Indian filmgoers; it's also been dogged by controversy over its name and the treatment of its child stars.

British director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson issued a statement Thursday defending their handling of eight-year-old slum dwellers Rubiana Ali and Azharuddin Ismail.

The Indian media have accused the makers of the hit film of paying a paltry sum to the two child actors.

Boyle's statement says the producers set up a fund more than a year ago to cover education, basic living costs, health care and any emergencies. The children were enrolled in school for the first time after the film was made.

If they stay in school until they are 18, the children would receive another "substantial" lump sum, the statement said.

Rafiq Qureshi, father of Rubina, backed up the claim, saying the filmmakers "are taking complete care of my child."

"Whatever a parent could have done, they have done much more than that," he said.

Rubina herself said she would like to study acting and find a career in the movies.

The film provoked complaints over its portrayal of Mumbai, where millions still live in poverty.

It also has run afoul of conservative Hindu groups, who filed a legal complaint in Goa on Thursday alleging the film "hurts religious sentiments" with its portrayal of Hindus and Lord Ram.

In the eastern state of Bihar, slum dwellers objecting to the word "dog" attacked a cinema screening of Slumdog Millionaire.

The controversies have hurt the film at the box office in India, where it opened a week ago.

Critics have also not been kind to the film.

Aside from Anil Kapoor, who plays the game show host and is cast in a negative light, there are no big Bollywood favourites in the film.

The movie is a rags-to-riches story about a boy who grows up in the Mumbai slums but goes on to win first prize in a TV game show.

The gritty story and the impoverished settings are not familiar to regular consumers of Bollywood, who prefer high action or chaste love stories.

The Hindi-language version of the film is doing better than the English-language version in India.

"To hear slum boys speaking perfect English doesn't seem right, but when they are speaking in Hindi, the film seems much more believable," said Shunali Shroff of Fame Cinemas, a movie theatre chain.

"Everything said and done, this is a niche film, and we don't expect it to do well in smaller non-urban centres."

Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for 10 Oscars and was a big winner at the Golden Globe Awards. On Thursday, it won film of the year and two other awards at the Richard Attenborough Film Awards, voted on by British critics.