Jaisalmer kids live their circus dream

We all know of the rags-to-riches story of the slum kids, Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, who won accolades for their performances in Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire”.
We also know of the “I am Kalam” kid, Harsh Mayar, a slum kid from Delhi whose heart-wrenching act in the movie won him praises.
Now, three kids from a small village near Jaisalmer had the opportunity to act with Tannishtha Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a film called “Dekh Indian Circus”.Though auditions were held across India, it were these three from Rajasthan – Virendra Singh Rathore, Suhani Oza and Dhana Ram Chaudhary, who got selected to act in the movie. And these kids are hoping to recreate the same magic. One of the kids, Virendra, said, “Humein bahut maza aaya. We hope people appreciate our acting and get us more movies in future.” Another kid, Suhani, said, “I felt like a queen when I was in front of the camera especially with Tannishtha.” But what is common is that all these kids wanted to work in a circus. “We all dreamt of working in a circus because it looks fascinating. We enjoyed shooting but especially the circus part, ‘bahut maza aaya’,” the kids chorus.
Virendra, Suhani and Dhana had never seen a camera before and for them, it was a life-time opportunity to act in a movie. Though the movie was shot extensively in Rajasthan, few scenes of the circus were filmed in Mumbai and when these kids came to Mumbai, it was a dream-cum-true for them.
Mahaveer Jain, producer of the movie said, “While we were auditioning, we did not do it in front of a camera, so that they could bring out their true self,” adding, “We shot during winters in Rajasthan and we used to work with these kids for 16 hours daily but they enjoyed every moment of it. Interestingly, majority of the people in the movie are from Rajasthan to make the film look more authentic.