The Budding Star

Darsheel Safary began his career at the tender age of 11, when he made his debut in Taare Zameen Par as the protagonist, Ishaan Avasthi. His portrayal of a struggling dyslexic child guided by Aamir Khan, literally moved the country to tears. He went on to get nominated for six awards and won five of them including an award for the best actor.
At the moment, the actor who is all of 16 years is wrapping up work on Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of the Salman Rushdie bestseller Midnight’s Children. He will be playing the younger Saleem Sinai and will be seen sporting a prosthetic nose in the movie!
Darsheel is also among the 12 contestants on Jhalak Dikhlaja, where he was recently spotted dancing with both Madhuri Dixit and Priyanka Chopra, who were on the show as a judge and special guest respectively. He recently revealed that he may not continue acting in the future as he also sees dancing as a passion and might thus look out to work on his choreography skills.

YI: How did you get your first audition?
DS: I was in Shiamak Davar’s dance company and there was a general audition for Taare Zameen Par there.
I got shortlisted for that and was called to Shiamak’s office at Khar where after three rounds, I was shortlisted for the role (from 5000 kids from all over India).

YI: What was your experience like?
DS: It was an amazing experience on the sets! I couldn’t sleep the night before my first day of shooting because it was a first for me. I was also really excited and happy that I wouldn’t get time to study. However, that didn’t happen! I had my tuition teacher on sets. So I had to study on sets between takes so that I wouldn’t miss out on my studies. However, the atmosphere out there was totally awesome!

YI: How do you feel now after your performance was appreciated?
DS: It was and still is a great feeling! When you’ve worked hard and people like it, that’s just great. All I want is that all my fans love me.

YI: How has your life changed after the movie? Do you like the changes?
DS: Life changed completely because before Taare Zameen Par, I could just go anywhere I wanted to without getting mobbed or stuck anywhere. Now if I go anywhere, I get surrounded by people who want to take my pictures and autographs. But to be honest, that’s great fun!

YI: What are your future plans?
DS: I haven’t decided on anything specific as yet. It’s acting for now as it’s my hobby. After my tenth I might decide something different. I also like dancing a lot!

YI: Are you working on any project presently?
DS: Yes, I shot for a film called Winds of Change directed by Deepa Mehta. It’s the film adaptation of the Salman Rushdie novel Midnight’s Children. I play the role of younger Saleem.

YI: Your favorite pastimes?
DS: I like listening to music, dancing, swimming and reading books.

YI: Your favorite actor, actress and movie?
DS: My favorite actor is Hritik Roshan while Kareena Kapoor is my favourite actress. My favorite film is 3 idiots. I really like its theme.

YI: What kind of food do you like?
DS: I really love to eat pizzas, subways, dosas and chatpata chats.

Volume 2 Issue 1