Once the script was done and the seed funding was in place - the priority was CASTING. We started with the most difficult part - the children... we had to find two boys and two girls (ages 5-12).
Tried many routes - advertised in newspapers, worked through agents, talked to kids in the neighbourhood, asked filmmakers for references, went to children's workshops... the works. I must have poured over hundreds of snaps and profiles - and the lesson I learnt was precious: the children of today are so different from the children we were...
It was important for us to find children who still had that innocence and "that sense of wonder". Uncorrupted by adults or adulthood or the wise world around them.
After a great deal of shortlisting the first round of meetings was scheduled in Thiruvananthapuram. For this round we had invited children with some acting experience - most of them had done some kind of television work. I thought this would help them cope better with our schedules and work pattern.
But I was in for a shock.
My journal for that date reads thus ...
"I'm speechless. Almost every girl who walked in the door was caked in inches of makeup... And almost each boy tried to impress by mimicking Suresh Gopi or the CM -Achuthanandan!
Add over-enthusiastic parents to this equation and ROUND 1 = Tragic!"
:-(
1 comment:
"the children of today are so different from the children we were..." Very true. But I hope
you can caste children with that sense of wonder.
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