2 States of stardom - When child stars grow up!

 

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align="right"/> This week's release, 2 States, stars Alia Bhatt in the female lead - a 2 States of stardom - When child stars grow up!

 

self-made actress who has yet to work with her home banner of Vishesh Films. But technically,

 

that's not really true - because Alia started off as a kid of seven, playing Preity Zinta's

 

childhood in their 1999 film Sangharsh!

 

In the world of Hindi cinema, this is by no means an isolated phenomenon, though there is always

 

that difference in terms of how and why the actors did their films. That is, whether they were

 

quick-fix rare solutions by family members for practical needs or whether there were other

 

reasons for their appearance. Mysteriously, not all examples were well-known.

 

Taking the one-off examples like Alia first, few noticed the young boy participating in the

 

qawwali 'Muddat Hui Hai Yaar Ka Armaan Kiye Hue' in Sunil Dutt's Reshma Aur Shera

 

(1971). A decade later, he was to appear as Sanjay Dutt in Rocky!

 

Anil Kapoor, however, had a stroke of bad luck when his only film as a child actor, Tu Payal

 

Main Geet, starring Shashi Kapoor and Saira Banu, remained incomplete in the early '70s. But

 

Bobby Deol is still recalled as the cute, very young he-man who effortlessly lifts an axe (made

 

of cardboard, as his father revealed!) and grows up to his father, Dharmendra, in Manmohan

 

Desai's Dharam-Veer!

 

And how many are aware that Ajay Devgn, today's angry action man, played a docile and protective

 

brother in Pyari Behna (1985), the moderately successful Bapu-directed melodrama? A

 

background theme song composed by Bappi Lahiri was also filmed on him in this Mithun Chakraborty

 

movie, 25 years before Bappi and Mithun joined forces in the adult Ajay's Golmaal

 

3!

 

Occasionally, however, the one-off example extended to two or more films. We all remember the

 

three kids walking in the rain during the classic Raj Kapoor-Nargis song 'Pyar Hua Ikraar

 

Hua' from Kapoor's own Shree 420 (1955). Most people know that they were Randhir

 

Kapoor (then 8 years old), Rishi Kapoor (3) and their sister Ritu (6). Later, Rishi Kapoor was

 

actually conferred the National Best Child Actor award for his role of the adolescent Raj Kapoor

 

in Mera Naam Joker (1970) when he was all of 18!

 

 

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align="right"/>Randhir too did one more film, Sheikh Mukhtar's Do Ustad (1958), in which

 

he played Mukhtar's childhood in a story that had his father Raj Kapoor as the other hero. The

 

interesting trivia here is that when Salim-Javed refashioned the film as Haath Ki Safai

 

(1974), Randhir essayed his father's role!

 

Not many also remember Hrithik Roshan, who was seen dancing away with elan and just like

 

Jeetendra (the hero) in the Rafi chartbuster 'Jaane Hum Sadak Ke Logon Par' from his

 

grandfather J. Om Prakash's blockbuster Aasha when he was just six! This was followed by

 

another cameo in the same year in Aap Ke Deewane, his father Rakesh Roshan's maiden

 

production. Hrithik's abilities to dance were already coming to the fore, and he was seen

 

tangoing in grandpa's later films, Aas Paas and (the Punjabi) Aasra Pyaar Da.

 

 

However, junior Krrish was seen in his first meaty role when father and grandfather came

 

together in the 1986 Bhagwan Dada. His action scene with Danny Denzongpa when he rescues

 

Tina Munim and his death sequence later were magnificent, considering he was just 11 when

 

shooting began, proving that dancers and action heroes are all to the manor born!

 

Two more examples of kids doing family pictures are the uncle and nephew team of Aamir Khan and

 

Imran Khan. While Aamir can be seen as the smart kid who later grows up to be Tariq (also a

 

relative) in his uncle Nasir Husain's super-hit Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973) at the age of 8,

 

he acted a year later in his father Tahir Husain's Madhosh as well.

 

Imran Khan, in turn, was to play Aamir as a kid in both Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and

 

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1992). During the former film, Imran was just four when shooting

 

began!

 

Tabu was spotted in a song in Sagar Sahadi's Bazaar (1982) but did just one featured role

 

as a child star - in Dev Anand's Hum Naujawan (1986) as the adolescent who has a crush on

 

him!

 

Tanuja did a small role in her mother Shobhana Samarth's Hamari Beti (1950), which also

 

marked the debut of her older sister Nutan in the lead. But what was more exciting for this

 

fiery mother of Kajol was her on-set interaction with Nargis when she played her childhood in

 

the 1952 Jayant Desai film Amber.

 

 

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align="right"/> Jayant Desai also introduced Shashi Kapoor as child artiste at the age of 7 in

 

the 1945 K.L. Saigal film Tadbir. However, Shashi was first noticed when he played Raj

 

Kapoor as a child in Aag (1948). Then came two major hits, Sangram (1949) in which he was

 

the 'kid' Ashok Kumar, and 1950's highest grosser Samadhi. His child career ended with a

 

meaty if brief role as Raj Kapoor's young version again in the 1951 Awara. And it took

 

over 25 years for Raj to direct his now-adult brother again in the 1978 Satyam Shivam

 

Sundaram!

 

Interestingly, most child artistes then were billed at whim in every film. So while Shashi was

 

credited as 'Shashiraj' in his brother's films, in Samadhi he was 'Sashi Kapoor'.

 

 

V. Shantaram, whose Subah Ka Tara (1954) saw his 9 year-old daughter Rajshree debut as

 

child actor, also cast her again in Stree (1961), though this later top actress did four

 

big outside films before dad cast her in the lead in Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne (1964)

 

opposite new hero Jeetendra!

 

The Professionals

 

However, most child stars worked usually out of economic necessities, which again meant either

 

taking on work as a family responsibility or being persuaded by one or both parents to do so.

 

 

Shantaram's niece, later top star Nanda, first acted in her father's Marathi film Mandir

 

(1948) at the age of 9, and after he suddenly passed away, did several films as Baby Nanda,

 

beginning with Jaggu (1952), Angaray and Jagriti to support her family.

 

Meena Kumari began with Leatherface (1939) at the age of 7 and did almost a dozen films

 

till the mid-'40s as Baby Meena. Nargis, Sanjay Dutt's mother, acted in a few films as either

 

Baby Nargis or Baby Rani, beginning at 6 with the film Talash-e-Haq (1935). Asha Parekh

 

started off at 10 with Aasmaan (1952), incidentally O.P. Nayyar's debut, going on to do

 

several films. After "this musical flop as tall as the sky", as Nayyar admitted once to this

 

writer, the maestro composed two of his finest scores for Asha's later films Phir Wohi Dil

 

Laya Hoon and Mere Sanam!

 

Sridevi acted in not less than a dozen Tamil films, though her only Hindi film as a kid remains

 

the 1975 Julie.

 

Urmila Matondkar started off in Hindi films with Shyam Benegal's Kalyug (1981) after a

 

Marathi debut in Zaakol (1980). Padmini Kolhapure may have achieved fame for Satyam

 

Shivam Sundaram, Saajan Bina Suhagan, Insaf Ka Tarazu and her nude back scene as the

 

possessed girl in Gehrayee (1981), but she began at 7 in the small film Ek Khilari

 

Bawan Pattey (1972), action choreographer Ravi Khanna's directorial debut, and as a child

 

singer a year later in Yaadon Ki Baraat.

 

 

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align="right"/> Neetu Singh, now better known as Ranbir Kapoor's mom, again might have got fame

 

as the twin sisters in Do Kaliyan (1968) but started out when their family was living in

 

Chennai as 'Baby' Sonia (her real name) with Suraj (1966). Among her later films were

 

Dus Lakh (1967), in which her future sister-in-law Babita was the heroine, and Bimal

 

Roy's Do Dooni Chaar (1968) - Neetu was to do a film of that name as the lead in 2010!

 

 

Then there was Sarika, Shruti Haasan's mom, who began her first innings with B.R. Chopra's 1967

 

Humraaz at the tender age of 5. Sarika, as moppet Suraj, would also play the roles of

 

boys, and her most famous turn was as the title-role of Balak, a blockbuster produced by

 

B.K. Adarsh, father to Taran Adarsh. Shruti Haasan herself first faced the camera at 14 for her

 

father Kamal Haasan's Hindi-Tamil bilingual Hey! Ram (2000).

 

The male side saw names like Aftab Shivadasani, who first 'faced' the camera at 14 months as the

 

Farex baby! From other commercials, he moved to kid-zone in cinema with Mr India (1987)

 

at 9, followed by multiple films that included Awwal Number (as young Aamir Khan),

 

Shahenshah and Insaniyat (as young Amitabh Bachchan!) and

 

Chaalbaaz.

 

Kunal Khemu started off in Mahesh Bhatt's 1993 Sir and Hum Hain Raahi Pyaar Ke.

 

Most of his films were with Bhatt, notably Zakham (as young Ajay Devgn) with some more

 

films like Judwaa (as the young twin Salman Khans) and Raja Hindustani. It was

 

Bhatt again who launched him as a hero in Kalyug (2005).

 

Sachin was one of the biggest child stars of his time, winning the National award, no less, for

 

his Marathi debut Haa Maazha Marg Ekta, at the age of 4! His Hindi innings began with

 

Zimbo Ka Beta at the age of 8 and he went on to do at least a dozen major films, with

 

meaty roles in Majhli Didi, Brahmchari and Chanda Aur Bijlii (as Chanda). Many of

 

his roles were as the childhood of big stars like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra,

 

Jeetendra and Feroz Khan!

 

But perhaps the lowest profile young actor was the late Vinod Mehra, who played the young

 

Kishore Kumar in both Ragini (wherein he enacts the song 'Iss Duniya Se Nirala

 

Hoon' in the voice of Geeta Dutt) and Bewakoof and the young Bharat Bhushan in

 

Angulimaal. It was fitting, perhaps, that Kishore became his first adult voice in his

 

lead debut Parde Ke Peechey!

 

 

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align="right"/> Children of a different kind

 

Shahid Kapoor and Ayesha Takia were top child models who later entered films. But there were so

 

many actors who moved from being busy kid actors to top character artistes - like Daisy Irani,

 

Farhan Akhtar's maternal aunt (in Naya Daur among at least 20 films), Jalal Agha (who

 

played Dilip Kumar's childhood in the all-time hit Mughal-E-Azam) Naaz (aka Salma Baig,

 

best known for Boot Polish, who played the lead in a few small films) and Tabassum, best

 

known also as a stage anchor and television host (who enacted the hit 'Bachpan Ke Din' in

 

Deedar).

 

Similarly, there were a whole lot of artistes, led by Jugal Hansraj (Masoom, Loha ,Karma

 

and more), Master Satyajeet (Shor et al), Master Aditya Narayan (Masoom, Pardes

 

and others) and more, whose careers went nowhere as actors.

 

And let us not forget choreographer Saroj Khan (who was introduced in V. Shantaram's 1952

 

Parchhaiyan) who actually danced in films like Maya Bazaar and Aagosh - in

 

which she enacted the song 'Bansuria Kaahe Bajayi'! - at the age of 5! Saroj even became

 

assistant choreographer at 12 with the 1960 Kalpana!

 

Lata Mangeshkar acted in Marathi films, composers Laxmikant and Pyarelal played small roles in

 

Hindi and Gujarati movies and filmmaker Mahesh Kothare (child actor of blockbusters like

 

Chhota Bhai and Raja Aur Runk) grew up to be a top hero in Marathi cinema,

 

directing two Hindi films including the 1996 hit Masoom.

 

Sonu Nigam, is best known for playing young Suuny Deol in Betaab (1983) at 10, though he

 

made his debut as Mithun Chakraborty the child in Deepak Bahry's Ustadi Ustad Se and

 

Rakesh Roshan's Kaamchor (both 1982) and essayed Shatrughan Sinha's childhood in

 

Taqdeer (1983). In 2002, Sonu also did his first film as actor, Jaani Dushmun - Ek

 

Anokhi Kahani, and he don the hat again soon.

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