Stage Buzz:Film:Child Prodigy

Master Kishan, who at the age of twelve has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest film director in the world for a film that he made when he was nine years of age, said today that he wanted to train in virtual technology.

Kishan received the National Film Award from President Pratibha Patil for best children’s film for the Kannada ‘Care of Footpath’ produced by his mother Shylaja Shrikanth. He broke the earlier record of Sidney Ling from the Netherlands who was the youngest Film director when he was 13 years old in 1973.

Kishan is already into animation and special effects and has even got his younger sister Kiran involved, though she had first said she wanted to be an airhostess and then changed her choice to medicine. Kishan has learnt Photo-designing and works on Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. He is a sound engineer and an Editor. (He works on Final Cut Pro-FCP).

Kishan, who has already been to several countries with his film and won several awards, told this critic that it is important for children in India to learn about various cultures. Asked what he found was better in India than other countries, Kishan said the ancient heritage in this country had taught certain values which were hard to inculcate elsewhere. As an example, he said he always took the blessings of his parents when he woke up and before he went to sleep.

Starting his career as a child model at the age of three, he began acting in films at the age of four. At the age of nine he had acted in 24 Feature films and featured in more than 300 Television episodes. At an age of 6 years he became a play back singer and has sung in more than three feature films and four private albums. Kishan has himself sung for the current film "Born in India " (the Hindi version of his film ‘Care of Footpath’).

His father told indiantelevision.com that when Kishan took up direction at the age of nine, he completely gave up acting. He was now working on a second film and had no plans at present to go back to acting.

Kishan learnt cinematography and the art of direction during his shooting schedules as a child star. “I learnt the art of direction starting as a light boy and going up to cinematography and from a clapper boy to a Director”.

Though he is at present in class eight (‘because I got double promotion’), he is learning 3D-Computer Graphics, Animation and Optical illusion and by 2010 he wishes to enroll for an Engineering course in Virtual Technology and Optical Illusions.

Kishan has been recognized as one among top 10 Genius children of Asia by Media Corp., Singapore , and as one of the World’s 15 smartest Children at the recent Oprah Winfrey Show named “Oprah presents the world’s smartest kids”.

Asked what inspired him to direct his first film, he said he used to see street children coming up to his father’s car to sell newspapers and wondered why they were not going to school. He wanted to inspire them and he wrote a story. The screenplay, partly inspired by the story of former President A P J Abdul Kalam, was written by some journalists. He dedicated this film to all the underprivileged children on this earth. In fact, he says one of his best memories is of the time he spent his birthday with street children.

The film has also won awards in Cyprus , Greece , Italy , the 15^thGolden Elephant International Children’s Film Festival at Hyderabad , and Cairo among others. The film has also been shown in Armenia , Canada , Spain , Ireland , and Iran .