TIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Young film lovers were star-struck as popular child artists made an appearance on the third day of International Children’s Film Festival of Kerala(ICFFK) at the Kairali
theatre here. Speaking at ‘Meet the Director/Artist’ -an open interactive session, the little stars extended their full support to the initiative promoting films inclusive of young minds. “ICFFK is an incredible platform that encourages children to be avid viewers of value-based films,” said actress Sanusha, who started her career as a child artist. She was attending the session with her brother and child actor Sanoop Santhosh. “The film industry has been welcoming more children onto the big screen but I believe the number of films promoting their interests is still low,”she added.
Actress Anikha Surendran shared her opinion about the current status of child artists in the industry. “ I personally feel that ideas of young actors tend to be marginalised. However, my co-stars have always been encouraging,” she said. Actor Minon John had a different take on how artists are treated on set. “ In art films, a field I am more experienced in, crew members are impartial to one another and they also share the same burden of work,” he said. Minon, who always wished to be at the annually held International Film Festival of Kerala(IFFK), was excited to be part of the buzz at ICFFK.
Master Ajas, the child actor who portrayed Mohanlal’s childhood in Pulimurugan, expressed his pleasure at meeting the young fans. After a request from a fan, Ajas was more happy to show the Pulimurugan pose that was featured in the movie’s promo posters. While answering a question about the issue of drug and alcohol abuse among children of his age category, Ajas emphasised on how children themselves are responsible for their well being and thus, must take care not to fall prey to such addictions.
“Many award-winning, inspiring films tend to drown in the floods of commercial films purely made for entertainment,” Minon said while referring to national award winning movie Kunju Daivam. “These children are lucky to be part of a film fest like this,” he added. The session ended with the selfie of the bubbly participants with their favourite child actors. Parents who accompanied the children also expressed their gratitude to ICFFK for providing the children with a fun-filled experience.