Behind the Big Screen: After-lives of juvenile stars, journeys beyond sets

A revealing account of Bollywood's child actors-tracing their rise, struggles, and life beyond fame, while spotlighting exploitation, resilience, and the need for stronger safeguards

Behind the Big Screen: The Untold Stories of Bollywood’s Child Actors

By Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer

Published by Bloomsbury India

284 pages  ₹599

 

Think of films such as Boot Polish, Masoom, Taare Zameen Par or Stanley ka Dabba, and it’s their child stars who first come to mind. After all, these actors carried the films on their shoulders, winning the hearts of millions. And they are not alone. The Indian film industry has always thrived on talented child actors who have carved a niche for themselves. But what does their life look like between and after takes? What becomes of them when they grow up and are no longer the cute kid everyone adored? These are some of the questions explored in Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer’s Behind the Big Screen: The Untold Stories of Bollywood’s Child Actors. 

The book focuses on the lives of child actors active in Hindi film industry from the 1960s to the 1990s, a period during which “they formed perhaps the most vulnerable component of a film production unit”.The result is a fairly comprehensive look at the life of these actors through a series of interviews with Honey Irani, Daisy Irani, Raju Shreshtha, Baby Guddu, Junior Mehmood, Jugal Hansraj and Sachin Pilgaonkar, to name a few. 

Two pictures emerge through their stories. On the one hand are actors such as Sachin, Master Raju, Master Bittu and Junior Mehmood who look back with fondness and have happy memories of their time on sets. On the other hand, there are actors like Daisy Irani and Baby Naaz who were scarred by their time in the industry. They, like many others, were sent to work to either fulfil the ambitions of their parents or as bread-winners for the family and had no say in the process. 

Their stories reveal the vital role of parents in determining the future of child actors. When parents are thoughtful and caring, they protect the child from all kinds of exploitation – physical, mental, financial – and also give them a normal childhood, which goes a long way in shaping their future. Unfortunately, there are cases where the guardians have turned predators, like in the case of Daisy Irani who was raped at the age of six by the family’s driver, or in the case of Sarika who had to fight a legal battle against her mother to control her finances. There is also the moving tale of Sharad Goyekar, the National Award-winning actor of the Marathi film Tingya who lost his way during adolescence due to a lack of guidance before finally putting his bad days behind him. 

Another crucial factor that emerges in the course of the interviews is the importance of education. This becomes especially significant considering only a small percentage of child actors are able to transform into successful stars as adults. In such a scenario, the interviews show, proper education, along with parental guidance, goes a long way in coping with rejection and the fading limelight. It also encourages the young actors to have a back-up plan in case their acting careers don’t work out. This is visible most sharply in the interview with Shafiq Syed, the child actor of Salaam Bombay! Today, Syed drives an autorickshaw in Bengaluru and moonlights as a sound recordist. While he blames the film-makers for his condition (which they deny), he acknowledges that his lack of education also hindered him in life. 

Besides speaking to child actors, the authors have also spoken to directors such as Amole Gupte, Nila Madhab Panda, Mangesh Hadawale and Ashutosh Gowariker, and to Pervin Dadachanji, a child psychologist based in Mumbai. These chapters add a different perspective to the book and broaden its scope. The authors round out the book with a chapter that summarises the issues that child actors face and provides an overview of the hitherto missing laws and regulations, including the new National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights guidelines, which bring all children in the entertainment and performing arts under their ambit. 

With OTT and reality shows featuring children on the rise, Behind the Big Screen is an informative and thought-provoking read. It not only gives readers a peek into the lives of the child actors of yesteryear, but also acts a guide for parents and lawmakers to make the world of cinema safe for the young actors of today and tomorrow. 

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The reviewer is an independent writer and translator