'Balan-The Boy' director on casting Adisheshan: 'Auditioned 4,000 people'
What's the story
The Malayalam survival drama Balan - The Boy, directed by Chidambaram and starring Farzana and Adisheshan, has already created a lot of buzz since its release. In an interview with Variety India, the filmmaker revealed that he auditioned around 4,000 people to find the right faces for his film. "We went with new faces and finding them was very tough," he said.
Casting process
'I was very lucky they were amazing...'
Chidambaram further added, "We auditioned around 4,000 people to find these faces." "And I got amazing ones. I was very lucky they were amazing actors as well. So that really helped." He acknowledged the difficulty of finding the right talent among child artists but emphasized that Adisheshan's improvisational skills and ability to remember lines made him stand out during auditions and filming.
Adisheshan's talent
'Adisheshan understands some complex concepts...'
Chidambaram said, "He's very bright, remembers his lines and he improvises. I keep thinking, 'This is great.' And here's this boy, acting beyond his age." "Adisheshan understands some complex concepts that are beyond his age." "That was the first thing I noticed about him. He never closes; he always asks questions." "He's like, 'What is this?' I remember him being confused on seeing us shoot with a camera and our output being this much."
Improvisation
On the child actor's improvisational skills
Chidambaram was impressed by Adisheshan's improvisational skills. He shared an example from the film where the child actor took a bag and held it without any instructions for improvisation. "That means that he understands what the scene is about rather than me telling him what to do exactly... I was very lucky to have him on board," added the director.
Challenges
Keeping Adisheshan interested during the shoot was a challenge
Despite his talent, working with Adisheshan wasn't without challenges. Chidambaram said, "By the fourth day of filming, he was bored and said, 'I want to go home.' We had just started and had 74 days of shoot left!" "The biggest challenge in working with kids is keeping them interested every day." "By 7pm he'd come to me and say, 'Sir, my battery is dead.' He would come and tell me that."