Bollywood

In a revealing interview on Roportaj with host Daanish Bin Nabi, authors Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer discuss their book Behind the Big Screen: The Untold Story of Bollywood's Child Actors (Bloomsbury India), exposing the harsh realities faced by child performers in Hindi cinema from the 1960s to the 1990s. They detail an era of near-total lack of regulation—often described as “jungle raj”—where financial desperation drove impoverished families to push children into films, resulting in exploitation on sets, denied education, parental abuse, and in some heartbreaking cases, sexual assault. Through powerful testimonies from former child actors like Daisy Irani, Master Raju, Jugal Hansraj, and others, the authors highlight the profound, lifelong psychological scars of lost childhoods, the near-impossible transition to adult careers, and the industry's long silence on these issues. While noting meaningful reforms since the 2000s—including regulated working hours, on-set counsellors, and mandatory education safeguards—the conversation underscores that the true responsibility ultimately rests with parents, who must prioritise their child's education and well-being over fleeting glamour. This candid discussion, as presented on Diplomat Digital, serves as both an archival record of a hidden chapter in Indian cinema and a call for continued vigilance to protect the youngest members of the film industry. Guests: Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer, authors of Behind the Big Screen: The Untold Story of Bollywood's Child Actors (Bloomsbury India) Daanish Bin Nabi: Hello, and welcome to Roportaj. This is Daanish Bin Nabi. In today's segment of Roportaj, we shall discuss the recently released book by Bloomsbury Publications titled Behind the Big Screen: The Untold Story of Bollywood's Child Actors. The book is authored by Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer. It explores the hidden stories of the child artists of Bollywood. Let's go to the authors and listen to their stories. Choosing the Time Period: 1960s to 1990s Daanish Bin Nabi: My first question is to Sunanda, ma'am. Shall we start with you? Sunanda Mehta: Yes, sure. Daanish Bin Nabi: The book focuses on child actors from the 1960s to the 1990s, if I am correct. Why did you choose this particular time period? Sunanda Mehta: This was the period when the film industry had few rules and regulations for child actors. It was more like a "jungle raj." The evolved sensitivity that exists today was simply not there on the film sets, and it was the children who suffered the most. The child actors who entered films during that time did so mainly for financial reasons. Almost all of them were pushed into this line by parents who were not very well off, and they soon became the earners in their families. For this reason, they were extremely susceptible to exploitation—both on the sets and within their own families. They endured incredibly tough times. This is why we chose this span. Also, we are probably more familiar with those child actors, aren't we? I think even children today are more familiar with a Junior Mehmood, a Baby Guddu, or a Master Raju than they are with many contemporary child actors. Those names don't spring to mind as quickly as the older child actors' names do. We wanted to look at those who were so famous as child actors. There were so many of them who had roles written just for them, and then they simply disappeared once they reached 12 or 13. Most of them, we never heard of again. That was another intriguing question: what happened to these child actors? That's why we chose that span—because the maximum stories lay there. Post-1990s: Improvements for Child Actors Daanish Bin Nabi: I'm just trying to understand from you—after the 1990s, did the situation for child actors somehow improve? Sunanda Mehta: People began to realize that child actors also have rights. As families' financial situations improved, child actors began entering the industry more for glamour and fame than for money. As a result, they had more bargaining power. Things evolved. People realised they could not treat child actors the way they had been treated earlier. Child actors had a right to proper education, to schooling, to regulated shift timings, to fair payments, to the kind of travel and outstation accommodation that was given to adult actors, which had never been given to child actors before. People became more vocal about these rights, and as a result, things started to change, I would say mainly from 2000 onwards. Challenges in Tracing Former Child Actors Daanish Bin Nabi: Great, ma'am. I think this is the time to bring in Suchitra ma'am and listen to her expertise on the book. Suchitra ma'am, the book mentions that there was great difficulty in reaching out to these erstwhile actors. What challenges did you face in tracing them down to listen to their stories? Suchitra Iyer: Actually, we couldn't trace a lot of them at all. Nobody knew where they were. We got these names through various sources. For instance, I got Master Raju first through someone, on Instagram, or through some other medium. We contacted people through various forms and platforms to reach them. But some were not traceable at all. Even other actors did not know where they were. Some had passed away. Some had moved abroad. It was quite difficult, but we made the most of whoever we could contact. Then there was another category: actors who did not want to talk to us. For different reasons—either they did not want to go back to their past lives, or they wanted to move on, or they were writing their own book. Some of them we could not reach, and some did not agree to speak with us. So everything happened together. We made the most of whoever we could contact, and it was not for lack of trying. We really persuaded them to talk to us, but some of them simply did not. Daanish Bin Nabi: That's the reality. The Concept of Childhood Loss Daanish Bin Nabi: Sunanda ma'am, I want to come back to you and understand this concept of childhood loss. As you mentioned earlier, these children had to tend to their families. What is this concept of childhood loss, and how did it actually affect the child's psyche? Can you talk a bit about that? Sunanda Mehta: It affected a great many of the children we spoke to. It definitely affected the children who were exploited and had a very difficult childhood on the sets. But even those who had a good time—there were some who genuinely enjoyed and loved their time as child actors—said something striking. For instance, Tinnu Anand told us, "There's no such thing as a child actor. When you become a child actor, the word 'child' drops out of your life." Or Alokananda Roy said, "Movies have this disclaimer: 'No animals were harmed in the making of this film.' That's great. But what about the children?" There is also the telling fact that none of the child actors we interviewed later made their own children into child actors. Daanish Bin Nabi: So they did not want them to go through the same uncertainties and transience they had experienced as child actors and then as adults trying to transition? Sunanda Mehta: Exactly. They did not achieve the same success as adult actors. But to speak specifically of the stories: Daisy Irani, Khushbu Sundar, to an extent, Honey Irani (though she took a lot of what she went through on the chin), so many of them—Baby Naz, even Shahu Gole, who won the National Award for the Marathi film Tingya. All of them went through it. As Prahlad Kakkar has written in his foreword, "You are what your childhood is." What they went through greatly affected them in adulthood. When we asked Daisy Irani how often she thinks of those horrible times on the sets—when she was exploited by men on the sets, or by a mother who pushed her, didn't let her go to school, didn't give her any education, but treated her as a golden goose (the same was true for Khushbu and her father)—Daisy said, "I think about it every single day of my life." She is 76 now. It took her decades even to come out and talk about the rape she had to undergo as a six-year-old child. It affected Shahu Gole, who won the National Award for his first film, Tingya, not so long ago. You get used to a very unrealistic kind of world; you get used to success and fame and glamour, and obviously, when that starts dimming, it is very difficult to accept. That is one aspect. The other is the loss that never goes away. A lot of them said they would not take away their own children's childhood by putting them on the sets. Media's Role and Societal Apathy Daanish Bin Nabi: I want to understand something mentioned in the book as well. Why do people or the media not write or talk about this exploitation, not only of child actors, but of female actors, and in some cases even male actors who are harassed in different ways? Why do we not talk about these issues? Why does the media tend to sweep them under the carpet rather than bring them out into the public? Sunanda Mehta: That is not entirely true. Indirectly, they have tried to write about it a number of times. But the thing is, nobody comes forward to talk about these things. How much can you keep extrapolating? You need somebody to come out and speak about it. When the MeToo campaign happened, the media was behind the victims, supporting them. The main reason people do not come forward is that being in the glamour world and continuing as actors takes precedence over telling bitter truths. Daanish Bin Nabi: And some of them will never work again. We have instances of people who have come out and spoken about exploitation, and then we do not know where they are. They simply disappear from the scene. Sunanda Mehta: That is precisely the point. Whoever talks about these issues completely vanishes from the scene, and then they find it difficult to get work or pursue their careers. Suchitra Iyer: Or doing anything else in their lives. Sunanda Mehta: I just want to add that unless they come forward and speak for themselves, the media cannot write about it. Tomorrow, they can just go back and say they never said it. We all know the cliques are everywhere. The media can only write about it if you come out yourself and say it, or if there is credible proof. Take Daisy Irani, for example. She went through rape and other horrors. But none of us knew anything about it or spoke about it until she herself decided to come out with it to a media publication. That is when it all came out. Otherwise, nobody would have known if she had not spoken about it. Suchitra Iyer: And she spoke about it 60 years after it happened. Sunanda Mehta: It also takes a great deal to recount what you have gone through. Daanish Bin Nabi: If we look at the bigger picture, is it also about our society? Are we, as a society, lacking the willingness to hear the truth? Suchitra Iyer: I think for an audience, a star is sacrosanct. Sometimes they do not want to hear bad things about their favourite stars. So, unless something concrete comes out, we may prefer to ignore it and look the other way. If we are ready to overlook it, then it is only win-win for the industry. And if this happens to adult actors, you can imagine what the state of child actors must be—children who cannot even articulate what they are going through. Sunanda Mehta: As children, they thought they were actually enjoying the whole journey. In this book, we are stripping off the veneer of glamour, success, and stardom, and bringing out the vulnerabilities, the realities beneath that surface—how a child navigated an absolutely adult world, not only acting amongst adults but also dealing with adult subjects in the films. Everybody says, "Oh, so cute! The child was so cute. He did such a good job. She did such a good job." But what was behind all that is what Behind the Big Screen talks about. Jugal Hansraj and Career Rebuilding Struggles Daanish Bin Nabi: The book also mentions Jugal Hansraj. What type of struggles did actors like him face when they tried to rebuild their careers? Sunanda Mehta: Jugal especially had a very rough time. Nobody knows about it. When you say Jugal Hansraj, you only think of that cute boy in Masoom. But he told us that 35 of the films he signed never materialised. Imagine the demotivation and struggle that would have been for a boy in his early twenties who believed he would become a very famous actor. Since childhood, they have invested so much in becoming actors that it is suddenly very difficult for them to step back and consider another career altogether. Some of them have managed successfully, but that was the struggle Jugal had to go through. Redefining "Child Actor" Daanish Bin Nabi: I need an answer from both of you. After writing such a wonderful book—it is a research masterpiece, I must say—how do you both personally now view and define the term "child actor"? Sunanda Mehta: I want to say one thing. Though we have written about the struggles, we in no way mean to say that child actors cannot exist. The film industry is there, films will be made, there will be dramas and theatre, and you do need children to play those parts. But what we are saying is that there must be a very strict set of rules, regulations, and norms in place. In an industry where exploitation is rampant—we all know this with newcomers and adults—children should not be put in the same bracket because they cannot afford to lose their childhood. Our whole intention in writing the book started with: what happened to the child actors? Why are they not seen? What have they done with their adult lives? And then it led us into a kind of—I would not say a campaign—but a feeling that there has to be some change in how we look at child actors. There is a change. The commission came, though very late, in 2011, with a whole new set of guidelines. There are now forms that parents and directors have to sign to ensure school and rest times. If you read the book, there are so many instances of parents waking children from sleep, pinching them, and withholding food until they deliver the perfect shot. All these forms of exploitation—on the sets, at home—now there is someone overseeing them to ensure they are not repeated. How do we look at child actors? We do not say it should be completely banned. Children have to be there. But there has to be a balance in their lives. They cannot become either the golden goose or an expression of a parent's vicarious ambition. Suchitra Iyer: Parents living vicariously through their children. Sunanda Mehta: They push the children. They want to live vicariously through them. Suchitra Iyer: Also, it is becoming more common now to sensitise children. As soon as they are signed, there are psychologists and counsellors on set, or even directors, who will talk them through what the film entails and what their role is about. They sensitise them to traumatic scenes. Psychologists counsel them on how to process it and come out of it. All these things were not there then, but they are there now. As Sunanda said, we cannot do without child actors—we need them—but we can employ them in a more sensitive and sensible way. Sunanda Mehta: They need to be protected, for sure. And I just want to say one more thing: this is not just true of the Indian film industry. This has happened even in Hollywood. We have done a brief on that as well. Macaulay Culkin, the most famous star of Home Alone, had to take his parents to court because he never saw the money he made from those huge films. Jackie Coogan—the Coogan Act was made later when he realised he had been exploited, again by his parents. Shirley Temple—there are so many of them. But somehow, no one really woke up to the rights of child actors. We hope that, with this book, we can sensitise both filmmakers and, most importantly, parents to the importance of childhood. If your children are going into the film industry, it should not be at the expense of education or the things that a child enjoys during that golden period of life. Suchitra Iyer: I must add here, Daanish, that as far as we know, this is the first time anyone has recorded anything on child actors in the Hindi film industry, which is such an important chapter in the history of Indian cinema. I hope that we have tackled it in a very comprehensive manner. We have spoken to psychologists, we have discussed the legal rights of children, and we want the industry as well as the audience to wake up and see what the reality is. Daanish Bin Nabi: Absolutely. Suchitra Iyer: So it can be archival in a way, as well. Core Message for Filmmakers, Producers, and Parents Daanish Bin Nabi: Before I wind up this interesting discussion with both of you, my last question—and I need views from both of you individually. What is the one core message that you think filmmakers, producers, and especially the parents of child artists must take away from this book about this profession? Ma'am, I think you go first. Sunanda Mehta: I will just say that, like all professions, the film industry is also a wonderful place. There are so many child actors who got the opportunity. This can make for a great foundation for a career or a life afterwards, as it happened with Alokananda Roy, Jugal Hansraj (who reinvented himself), Alokananda, and Baby Guddu (who reinvented herself). So it can be a wonderful place. But there are two groups who would be responsible for this, either a blessing or a bane for the child. One is the filmmakers and directors. It is their responsibility—and many of them are doing it now—to ensure the child is comfortable on the sets, that the timings and shifts are regulated, and that the child does not lose out on education. Equal responsibility lies with the parents: they should not push their children into this world of glamour for reasons they believe are correct. Daanish Bin Nabi: Isn't the responsibility and duty more on parents than on industry? Sunanda Mehta: Absolutely. It is probably 80 per cent of the parents. But once they are on the sets, it becomes almost equal for both. That is the differentiator. If there is anything we have learned from interviewing so many people—some had a great time, some had a horrendous time—the difference in their stories was the parents. Those who had parents who did not look upon them as the golden-egg-laying earning goose, those who were not the breadwinners for their families, were the ones who could transcend the period of being a child actor and move on to fruitful, productive adulthood. But the ones who had been pushed by parents are not only mentally scarred, but they were also not prepared to do anything else in the world outside. They are the ones who have carried the burden of this lost childhood throughout their lives. And again, it was because of the parents. So parents are the whole differentiator when it comes to the lives of child actors. Suchitra Iyer: I really feel that education is the most important factor here. If the child is educated—do your acting if you are talented; you must exploit it —but do it as a hobby; explore other things. Educate yourself not only in school but in other fields of life, so that if this works out, fine. If it does not work out, you should have a fallback option. You should feel secure in yourself that, okay, this is the end of the chapter of my film career, but it does not matter because I am good at this, and I can continue my life. I can bank on this talent of mine and continue to be a successful individual. If they have that security, and of course, it does depend on the parents to make sure that the children are well-rounded and confident individuals at the end of the day. Sunanda Mehta: We have instances of parents who were very successful, and when their children got more offers, they said, "No thank you. My child did just one or two films, but must go back to school, complete their education. We think that is more important." Or we had someone like Sachin Pilgaonkar, who loved being in films but realised that once your childhood is over, you lose those cute looks—another matter that Sachin never lost, even now—but if you lose them, you have to do other things. So he trained himself in editing and production so that if tomorrow he could not make it as an actor, he could still be in films, but in a different stream. Suchitra Iyer: Exactly. Same for Ravi and Manjunath of Malgudi Days. When they realised they did not want to go down as forgotten actors, they quit while they were still on a high, on a pedestal, so that people would still remember them as successful actors. Then they quit and reinvented themselves. Ravi is now a very big person in a corporate setup. Manjunath has his own business. So that is the main thing, basically: you should treat it as a career, and you should know that it is a transient thing. Sooner or later, you will have to do something else. When they are sure about that, then everything is taken care of. Daanish Bin Nabi: Let me finish this intriguing discussion on this positive note. I thank you both for appearing on my show. Let me hold your book once again so it reaches as many viewers as possible—they buy it, read it, and understand how our film industry works. It has been a pleasure talking to you both. Thank you. Sunanda Mehta: Thank you so much. About the Book Title: Behind the Big Screen: The Untold Story of Bollywood's Child Actors Authors: Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer Publisher: Bloomsbury India

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