Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur) - Hindustan Times (Jaipur) - City
Do child actors have it easy when relaunched in films?
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Kunal Kemmu, Urmila Matondkar, Sana Saeed, Shweta Basu Prasad, Hansika Motwani — all these names were successful child artistes before becoming fullfledged film actors. But does a past repertoire of work give them an easy access in Bollywood when they are relaunched as adults?
Saeed, who at the age of eight played Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter in Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), restarted her career in 2012 with the same director’s Student of the Year (SOTY). She tells us, “I had to do the runs and go to the auditions. It’s not that I called up Karan and said, ‘Hey, I want to work again and I’m the same chick’. I sent my pictures to a lot of casting directors.” Even for SOTY, Saeed reveals she auditioned for three rounds “and it was only later that they saw my resume and realised who I was”.
Having done projects as a child actor doesn’t guarantee you an open gate when you decide to transition as an adult, feels Aftab Shivdasani, who starred in films such as Mr India (1987), Shahenshah (1988) and Chaalbaaz (1989). “Working as a kid doesn’t matter because being a child actor and a film actor are very different. Unless you’re from a film family, you’ll not get that opportunity,” says the actor, whose lead debut was Ram Gopal Varma’s Mast in 1999.
Another child artiste, who starred in films such as Vaastu Shastra (2004), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2007) and
My Friend Ganesha (2007), Ahsaas Channa says she initially had to opt for TV and web series because big screen projects weren’t easy to get into. “The struggle is same for everyone. It may seem that since I did big films, I will have contacts. That’s not the case. Ultimately, getting a project is based on how good you are as an actor, and not the fact that you have done films as a child,” she explains.
So, does that mean child actors don’t get any advantage despite being the ‘insiders’ in the film industry? Saeed says there are some plus points indeed. “Since I was part of a big film, I felt a lot of respect was there, and I was accepted. No one said, ‘Let me see what she’s all about’. It was more like, ‘She must be good’. I was not a nobody for sure, and that was empowering for me,” she says.
To this, Channa adds that growing up on sets with people who are a part of the industry means that she “got to learn a lot of things and gained more experience”.