I Want to Become a Film All Rounder – Sara

At 9 pm on a sultry evening, the cast and crew of Nila Choru is ready to shoot. Director Sundararajan is in front of the camera and enacts the scene that’s to be shot. Child artist Sara, of Deiva Thiirumagal fame, watches keenly and gets the sequence right in just two takes.

She’s a few films old and has done many advertisements, which is perhaps why studios and sets aren’t alien to her. “I just follow what director uncle tells me,” says the eight-yearold. Currently, she’s busy with two films in Tamil — Nila Choru and Vizhithiru. The latter — about a sequence of events that takes place in night — required her to shoot in the streets of Chennai at night. “Thank god there’s no school now,” she smiles, “I catch up on my sleep in the afternoons mostly so that I can shoot at night. But I keep telling my papa, ‘take me to London, so that I can get used to timing and then we’ll come back and shoot at night in Chennai for Vizhithiru.’

Her father, Raj Arjun, an actor himself, gives her company on the set. So, what’s next for Sara? “She’ll be the lead character in director Vijay’s next film,” he reveals, “Titled Saivam, it will be produced and directed by him. It’s a village-centric subject and he (Vijay) wants to shoot it as soon as possible.”

Ask Sara what she wants to become when she grows up, and she says, “I want to become a film all-rounder. I want do everything except being a producer or a cameraman.” Prod her on why she wouldn’t want to be either of them, and she says, “Those two people are always working. Changing lens, handling different cameras and coordinating with artists — those are very tough.”