DANNY BOYLE - BOYLE'S SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE IS BIG WINNER IN TORONTO

BOYLE'S SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE IS BIG WINNER IN TORONTO

British director Danny Boyle has won the People's Choice Award, the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival, for his work Slumdog Millionaire.

The Dev Patel-starring film, which charts a poor boy's rise to fortune from the Indian slums by going on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, is now being tipped for similar success at the Oscars after scooping the award.

Boyle originally hoped to employ an all-Bollywood cast for the production, but said such actors were too well-established or looked too glamorous to carry off the role of someone from a heavily impoverished background.

"It's a great underdog story," Boyle, 51, said.

"In Bollywood if you want to be a young actor breaking into the system, you have to go to the gym for six hours a day to bulk up. I needed a very average-looking guy."

Despite his comments, Boyle also cast Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, and emerging talent Freida Pinto.

Boyle has already directed several critically-acclaimed films in his career, including Shallow Grave and Trainspotting - both starring Hollywood favourite Ewan McGregor - and the gritty horror film 28 Days Later.