Twinkle twinkle little star…..

The cute little kid who played Venkatesh and Nayantara’s son and confidently rattled off lengthy dialogues in Tualsi is Atulit. He is five and a half years old, would eat well and doze off in the afternoon and the shooting would be putt off to suit his mood. His father Suresh says he would accompany him most of the time and was there with him when he dubbed for the film.

He’d worked for 40 days and bonded quite well with the actors. The unit was very caring too and the producer would take him for a ride sometimes to strike a rapport with him. Interestingly Atulit was shortlisted from several thousands of pictures and had to undergo a crash course in acting. Suresh adds, “The course at Bikshu’s was primarily to discipline him and get used to the atmosphere in case he would back off in the last minute.

Eventually we felt nice when people called to tell us that they had seen the film just for the child.” Eleven year old Bharat is in the seventh standard, he lives in Chennai and his telugu has a heavy tamil accent. The rolly polly actor says he was on the heavier side right from his birth and finds absolutely no time to work out. He shuttles between school and studios but has to come up with 85% marks in his studies as his teacher will not accept anything less than that.

He was spotted by AVM when he was three and a half years old for the telugu serial Maatru Devata. After that he has worked in about 40 telugu films and more than 20 tamil films. Ask him his favourite actor he turns diplomatic, “I like everybody and everyone encourages me”. Bharat became popular playing Ileana’s brother in Pokiri and he did the tamil version too.

He loves eating biryani and pulihora but loathes upma, ironically he is seen eating upma throughout Pokiri which prompts Mahesh to say, “family mottham upma thini brathikesthunnara naana?” Yes, he guffaws, I like that line. Bharat works for atleast two films in a month and draws in his spare time.

Chinni, trainer and co-ordinator for child artistes in telugu films says times have changed and none of the parents compell their children to take acting as their career. He adds that it’s just a craze for parents to watch their child on screen, it could primarily be their ambition and they fulfill it through their offspring.

Chinni is inspired by his father Suryanarayana Rao to begin an acting institute in Uppal, and very soon he wants to start one in Banjara Hills or Srinagar Colony. The demand for child artistes have gone up with every film having an important role for a child aged 4 to 12. A parent on condition of anonymity states that the producers however extract work make profits by the end of the film’s business but pay a paltry some to the children and sometimes nothing at all by giving away goodies and complimentary gifts. 

Who can forget Kaavya in Gunnam Gangaraju’s Little Soldiers? Similarily Mamta who bagged a zillion awards from FIlm Festivals. Mohana who gave a heart warming performance in Patcha Bottu the recently concluded HIFF has grabbed media attention. Ravi Babu who directed Neha in Anasuya and Deepak in Sogaadu is on an endless panegyric and says both the kids are big time professionals who were first to arrive on the sets, never went beyond  giving the first or second take, dubbed for their voices and had fantastic memory.

He adds, “I had to become a child to get into their psyche. They have this propensity to look at a certain position and look at the director in askance to find out if they got it right, so the best way was to tell them to imitate me. In their case I never pampered them, they were extremely well behaved kids.”

There are others who are gifted and have already made their mark in the modeling and movie world like Armaan (Stalin) Mohana (Pournami, Ranam) Nihal (Jagadam) Harshita (Mayabazaar) Abhinav (Annavaram) Pranav (Rakhi) Pranati (Madhumasam) Yaani, Roshan (upcoming Jagapti Babu film) Kundana (Sravanti serial) Kartik and many more.

All the producers and directors who have been sulking that there isn’t enough telugu talent and are looking for import are in for some pleasant news. There are about 600 child artistes inclined to join the industry out of which 50 and odd are raring to go. Thanks to the innumerable television programmes that is pushing the talent to the forefront, in a decades time Andhra Pradesh will boast of the best and distinguished artistes…