New Delhi: Child artistes have figured in Indian films since the days of Dada Saheb Phalke. There was a child in his film 'Silsila' (made in 1917) based on an episode from the Ramayana. In the same year, 'Birth of Krishna' had his six-year-old daughter playing the role of the child Krishna.

During the 49th National Film Awards function recently, President A P J Abdul Kalam presented the best child award for 2002 to Baby P Shweatha for her subdued portrayal of Kutty, a young girl made to suffer the agonies of social disparity and human exploitation in the Tamil film 'Kutty'.

Indian film industry is full of those who began their careers as child artistes and went on to become distinguished actors and actresses. They include Daisy Irani, Tabassum, Sarika, Sachin, Jugal Hansraj, Urmila Matondkar and Padmini Kolhapure, to name a few.

Following their footsteps are a bunch of new child artistes, who are beginning to make an impact on Indian cinema. They are Ashwin Thamphy, Baby Shweatha, Master Vishwas, Benaf Dadachanji, Gargi, Shilpa Navalkar, Yogita Deshpande, Saubhagya Chandan, Sajil Parikh, Yashodhan Joshi, Master Vijayu Raghavendera, Bapi and Atisha Furtado, among others. They are winning the hearts of moviegoers by their impressive performances in Hindi as well as regional films.

Baby Shweatha, Master Vishwas, Ashwin Thamphy and Benaf Dadachanji have made a name for themselves by bagging national awards in the recent past.

In 2000, Ashwin Thamphy won the best child artiste award for his work in the Malayalam film 'Jalamaramaram'. Ashwin portrayed the innocent faith of a child in the existence of a mermaid and his confident strides to provide it with a safe environment.

Born in 1991 to a schoolteacher mother and an accountant father, Ashwin is a primary school student in Thiruvananthapuram. Receptive, intelligent, smart and understanding in 'Kraurya' that won him the best child actor award.

Benaf Dadachanji is a fourth standard student in St Annie's High school in Mumbai. She has modelled in many advertisements. Benaf won the award for best child artiste in the International Children Film Festival in Hyderabad in 1995 for her work in the Hindi film 'Halo' for her charming and natural performance.

Do child artistes need any special training? And how do filmmakers select them?

Rajashree, whose film the 'Rebel' won a national award, finds working with children interesting as well as tricky. She says that many children are natural actors. While training is not always needed, sometimes it helps a child to be more effective as an actor.

Twelve-year-old Baby Shweatha is studying at Chennai's Holy Angel's Convent. She has already acted in more than 50 commercials, ten teleserials and seven feature films. She has also done a Tamil film 'Manam Virunbudne Unnai', with Prabhu and Meena.

Shweatha's performance in the Tamil film 'Malli' is very impressive. When she saves the goat and tears her own skirt, her act of kindness moves the audience. She received the best child artiste award for her work in this film. She gave a vibrant performance as a young child whose pure bonding with nature causes her trauma at the environmental degradation.

Master Vishwas is a 12-year-old, a student of eight vibrant standard in Navodaya Vidyanikethana, Bangalore. He has acted in eight films. Besides acting, Vishwas is a dancer and rated as a good dubbing artiste.

Filmmaker Mitra Sen, who made a film on children 'The Little Red Dot' says, "I screened at least 200 children in various schools and selected 20 children out of them. Some of them were not good in delivering dialogues, while some were not comfortable, while facing the camera for the first time. But working with these children was inspiring and educative."

When these child artistes grow up, who knows how many of them may follow the footsteps of their predecessors of another era. Film lovers will remember that Urmila Matondkar, Jugal Hansraj, Daisy Irani, Baby Tabassum and Baby Khushboo had entered Bollywood as child artistes and later bloomed into fine adult stars.

ANI