Slumdog Millionaire's Jamal cycles back on the big screen

Ayush Khedekar, still remembered as the young Jamal Malik from Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning film, 'Slumdog Millionaire', is back on screen with 'Ek Tha Hero'. He plays an 11-year-old boy, Jignesh aka Hero, from a remote village who dreams of owning a cycle someday. The dream changes his life.
Ayush, who is now 16 is studying commerce in a Mumbai college. He shot for the film back in 2014."My dad, Mahesh Khedekar, is a Marathi theatre artiste. I was around three when I saw one of his plays and would make him enact it for me every night. After I had seen it 15-16 times, I told him I'll do it for now and got all the dialogues right.That's when my family realised my interest in acting."
He still remembers Jamal and has fond memories from the shoot. "I had to give around 10 auditions before I was selected. Danny (Boyle) uncle and Dev (Patel) bhaiya used to join me in playing pranks. One day I saw Danny uncle smoking and told him that if I ever caught him with a cigarette again, he would have to pay me Rs 1,000 every time. After that I would check his pockets daily but never found a cigarette. One day he sent me a message thanking me for making him give up smoking," he reminisces.
Ayush plans to continue with acting and make a career in it one day."I recently completed a short film with Pankaj Kapur and am looking forward to doing more films," he signs off with a smile.