Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is set to return to Mumbai after acquiring the rights to Suketu Mehta’s novel Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.

Mehta’s book is part travelog, part cultural history and tells the stories of slum-dwellers, dancing girls, hit men and poets, all of whom have come to the city to make it.

In an interview widely reported in India, Boyle said: “We’ve had a couple of meetings about another project in Mumbai. It won’t happen this year. But it will certainly happen next year. I will certainly enjoy coming back to Mumbai to make another film.”

It is not clear if his quotes refer to the Maximum City project or a second Mumbai set film project, which he is also reported to be considering.

Last week, the director had two meetings with Bollywood filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Shekhar Kapur in Mumbai. He was in the city with producer Christian Colson to push through plans to buy flats for two of the young stars of Slumdog Millionaire, following the destruction of their illegal slum homes by the city authorities.

Slumdog Millionaire was also based on an Indian novel, Q&A by Vikas Swarup. It tells the story of a Mumbai teenager who grew up in the slums and becomes a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The film took $353 million (£220 million) at the box office and won eight Oscars earlier this year.

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