Child actor Tanay Chheda has been a part of some fabulous films in his young career. He played Darsheel Safary’s best friend in Taare Zameen Par and was the middle version Jamal in the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire. Now he has landed another high profile project My Name is Khan and he will be playing the child avatar of Shah Rukh Khan’s character!
After seeing Tanay’s fabulous performance in Slumdog Millionaire Karan Johare decided to offer him the role in My Name Is Khan. About his role Tanay told IANS, “I play the childhood portions of Shah Rukh Khan’s role. It’s a small role and a very important film. And it will be shot during my holidays.”
Tanay also revealed that he landed the role in Slumdog Millionaire when they happened to come to his school to audition for roles in the film, “I couldn’t go to the auditions. But eight months later they came to my school for auditions. Luckily by chance I got the role.”
The production team really worked hard to make the actors who played the three versions of Jamal look similar and Tanay said it would take over an hour to do his makeup, “They had to work a lot on my physical appearance to make me look compatible with Ayush who played the youngest Jamal. They straightened my curly hair, etc. Also, they had to darken all of us three who played Jamal to look like we were constantly exposed to the sun. My makeup used to take 90 minutes every day.”
Though the Slumdog Millionaire express is over he says that though he misses them they all stay in contact, “And we all keep in touch through the email. We were all one big family.”
Tanay also has another release coming up Mastang Mama with Ruslaan Mumtaz but then after My Name is Khan he is taking a break from acting. He wants to concentrate on his studies and be a kid. “Right now I just want to enjoy my childhood. I’m passionate about football. And I love to write. I’ve lots of stories to tell.”
About what could happen next, “I know another Slumdog may not happen. But like my dialogue in the film goes, it’s all about destiny.”
