The Slumdog Millionaire lead pair is dating according to Dev Patel’s mother.

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto have always denied dating each other but the pair was recently caught enjoying an intimate lunch date in Israel, where Pinto, 24, is filming on location.

And Patel’s mum Anita says she is really pleased to see the two in love.

“First it was the film and now everything else seems to have slotted into place,” the Mirror quoted Anita as saying.

“Life can’t get any better for him. Freida is really beautiful and I am really happy for them. Yes, we knew he was flying to Israel to see her,” she added.

The couple are said to have started a relationship on the set of Danny Boyle’s multi- Oscar-winning film. And they have become increasingly close since travelling the world together to promote the movie. Dev, 18, is so besotted with the Indian actress that he flew to Jerusalem for a quick date.
They gazed adoringly at each other over lunch as Freida took a break from filming director Julian Schnabel’s latest project Miral.

The pictures follow comments made by their Slumdog co-star Anil Kapoor, who said earlier this year that the young couple had a “magical chemistry”.