MUMBAI: While children his age go ga-ga over Harry Potter films, a 10-year-old Indian boy prefers to call the shots from behind the camera. Kishan S. S., who has acted in several regional language films himself, is making his directorial debut with a feature film on street children, a feat that would make him one of the youngest professional film-makers in the world.
“I’m ready with 85 per cent of the film and looking at an April release,” Kishan told Reuters from his home in the south Indian city of Bangalore, better known as the country’s information technology capital.
But Kishan isn’t chasing records.
“I was out on a drive with my father one day when I saw these street children. I asked him about them and was sad that they were not like us,” he says.
“They did not go to school or study. I decided to do something for them one day.”
Kishan suggested making a film on the children, and his family supported the idea.
“C/O (care of) Footpath” tells the story of a street urchin who gets to go to school and makes it big, his example meant to be an inspiration for millions of street children, says Kishan.
The $170,000, 135-minute film is being produced by Kishan’s mother, Shailaja, herself a movie music director.
Kishan, who counts Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger as his favourite actors, is shooting in the southern city of Chennai and in Mumbai, home to Bollywood, the world’s most prolific film industry.
His seriousness and ability helped draw in leading Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff and several other well-known faces from the Hindi film industry.
The boy idolizes Steven Spielberg and says he hopes to win an Oscar one day.
When Kishan is not shooting, he is busy researching new scripts, planning his shots and discussing scenes.
“I don’t get the time to play. If there is time, then I’d rather study,” said Kishan, who wants to become a 3D graphic engineer, but adds he will continue making films.
Kishan’s film will be dubbed in Hindi and in the south Indian languages of Tamil and Kannada.—Reuters