Very few Indian films impress kids

Darsheel’s performance in Taare Zameen Par is worthy of an Oscar.

In the Indian film industry, most of the films that were made for children have had more to do with what adults want children to see, or what they believe children should see.

The world over, it is still the Harry Potter series that children are absolutely in love with. In my view, the few films in India that have managed to impress kids greatly include my Mr India and Krissh, and to an extent, Makdee.

We need to become a bit more imaginative with what would work with kids. The growing animation industry in India can improve the market for kids’ films greatly. Animation has been a great success the world over and should work here too with local subjects and themes.

Over the years, the portrayal of kids in our films has changed, and improved I must say. It’s a lot more realistic today for sure. I wouldn’t say that kids in our films have been over-smart because frankly kids like Harry Potter, once again, are very smart too.

Taare Zameen Par did a very good job in terms of giving a fair picture of what kids are like. But I think the main credit for that should go to the child artiste in the film, Darsheel Safary.

Darsheel’s performance in the film is probably the best I have seen amongst child actors the world over. I don’t know about TZP’s chances at winning an Oscar because I don’t know what the competition is going to be like but strong lobbying is what will make the difference. Aamir Khan has obviously done that once before with Lagaan, but how much time he would have on his hands for this film to get a nomination this time
remains to be seen. However, for me, the one thing that was really Oscar-winning about the film was Darsheel’s performance.

Shekhar Kapur is an internationally-acclaimed filmmaker. He spoke to Aniruddha Guha