Anurag Kashyap with the cast of ‘Little Thomas’. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, known for helming globally acclaimed titles such as ‘Dabangg 3’, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati 12 … gangs of wasseypur, ugly And KennedyReady with his next production venture Little ThomasThe film stars Gulshan Devaiah and Rasika Duggal in the lead roles while child actor Hridayansh Parekh also joins them in this comedy drama.
“Yes, it’s been a while. Maybe I was waiting for a good children’s film script,” Kashyap explains why it took him 17 years to return to the field after directing animated films The Return of Hanuman (2007). The filmmaker said, “Actually, making an authentic children’s film is a difficult genre, so one has to make sure the script is good before making it.”
Little Thomas It is set to have its world premiere at the upcoming Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Apart from Kashyap, the film also stars Ranjan Singh, Rajnikanth Ojha, Charu Ojha, Anushka Shah and Kabir Ahuja. Little ThomasKashyap was impressed by the vision of National Award-winning director Kaushal Ojha, who made his feature directorial debut with the film, which depicts the tragi-comic efforts of a seven-year-old boy to get his parents together and give birth to a younger brother.
Kashyap said, “I had seen Kaushal’s short film Miniature painters of Junagadh and I liked it. Then I read Little Thomas I read the script and understood his vision for it. He wanted to make a real children’s film, as well as create a world from a child’s perspective. The honesty of his approach helped in making the film.”
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Set in Goa of the 90s, the film is the story of Thomas, the only child of his parents who wants a younger brother. The synopsis of the film reads, “One day he is told that to get a younger brother, he has to kiss his parents. Since his quarreling parents don’t kiss anymore, little Thomas forces them to do this disgusting thing!”
Director Kaushal Ojha, an alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India, said that the team auditioned over 700 children to find Thomas and his gang.
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The filmmaker said, “Everyone is seven years old once in their life. When we grow up we miss the innocence of childhood. I wanted to capture the innocence and imagination that we had then and yearn for now.”
Little Thomas Produced by Luminoso Pictures, Civic Studios, Flip Films and Good Bad Films, it also stars Hridayansh Gokani, Ninad Pandit and Mahabanoo Modi-Kotwal. Little Thomas It will be screened at the festival before its theatrical release in the country.
