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Stars all Atulit

The cute little kid who played Venkatesh and Nayantara’s son and confidently rattled off lengthy dialogues in Tulasi is Atulit. He is five and a half years old, would eat his lunch 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 drive sometimes to strike a rapport with him. Interestingly Atulit was short-listed from several thousands of pictures and had to undergo a crash course in acting.

Neha

Eleven-year-old Bharat is in the standard VII, lives in Chennai and speaks Telugu with Tamil accent. The boy shuttles between school and studios but has to come up with 85 per cent marks as his teachers 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 who his favourite actor is and he gives adiplomatic answer, “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 at least two films in a month and loves to do painting in his spare time.

Chinni, trainer and co-ordinator for child artistes in Telugu films says times have changed and none of the parents compel 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 fulfil 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 has gone up with every film having an important role for a child aged between 4 and 12.

Mohana

Who can forget Kaavya in Gunnam Gangaraju’s Little Soldiers? Similarily Mamta who bagged so many awards. Mohana who gave a heart-warming performance in Patcha Bottu in the recently concluded HIFF has grabbed media attention. Ravi Babu who directed Neha in Anasuya and Deepak in Sogaadu says both the kids are very professionals who would arrive on the sets first and 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.”

Deepak

There are others who are gifted and have already made their mark in the modelling 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 cribbing about the lack Telugu talent are in for some pleasant news. There are about 600 child artistes inclined to join the industry out of which 50 are raring to go.

Anny

Thanks to the innumerable television programmes that are pushing the talent to the forefront, in a decade’s time Andhra Pradesh will boast of the best and distinguished artistes.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

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