It was a tense scene in Drishyam. Police constable Sahadevan hits Georgekutty (Mohanlal), whose daughter, Anu (Esther Anil), was supposed to shake in fear. After the first take, director Jeethu Joseph told Esther she should shiver some more. That was when Mohanlal suggested that he would fall to the floor after being hit.
“You observe me and react accordingly,” Mohanlal told Esther. And when Esther saw Mohanlal falling to the floor, she really got scared. Esther’s performance was widely praised, and Drishyam became a superhit. And recently, Esther finished shooting for the Tamil version, Papanasham, with Kamal Haasan, and with Venkatesh for the Telugu adaptation, Drushyam.
Like most child artistes, Esther, 13, came into films through sheer accident. When a TV crew came to Wayanad (254 km from Kochi) to do a segment on her mother Molly for a cooking programme, cameraman Biju Pazavila saw the bubbly Esther and was impressed. He suggested to her parents that a portfolio of her photos be taken.
Soon Esther got her first role in Nallavan. Now, 21 films later, she is well known all over Kerala.
Asked how life has changed for her, Esther says, “My classmates (in the De Paul Public School) have asked for my autograph. Even my friends want to pose for photographs with me. When I go to the railway station, a crowd forms just to see me.”
A crowd of teachers and students of the Leo XIII Higher Secondary School in Allapuzha rushed to see the 3D film, Little Superman. The reason: Class VIII student Deni Emmanuel Jacklin, 13, was playing the hero, Villi.
Like Esther, Deni also got the role by chance. One day, a friend told Deni’s mother, actress Rani Larius, that director Vinayan was looking for a boy hero. So she sent an application. Soon, she got a call from Vinayan asking her to bring Deni to Kochi. There, the youngster danced and acted in front of the director. He was one among a few thousand aspirants. After a photo shoot, Deni was selected to play Superman. “Deni showed self-confidence and poise,” says Vinayan. “I was impressed.”
The shoot lasted for 40 days, but Deni received a lot of support from the school. “My friends took down notes and send it to me,” says Deni. “And when I could not sit for some exams, I was allowed to do it at a different date.”
In recent times, several child actors have done well in Mollywood. Ten-year-old Sanoop Santhosh was the Best Child Artist at the 2014 Kerala State Film Awards for his role in Philips and the Monkey Pen. The brothers Benson, Shebin (16) and
Nebish (14) performed competently in the recent hit, Iyobinte Pushthakam, while 12-year-old Baby Nayanthara has acted in several films, even though she’s only in Class VII.
Asked the difference between the child actors of today and earlier, Vinayan says, “They have self-confidence, a positive attitude, and are exposed to a lot of children’s films on TV, like the Harry Potter series. Deni had already seen the Superman films, so he knew what we wanted. So I am not surprised many directors are using children in their films.”