Slumdog Millionaire owes a big part of its success to Ayush Mahesh Khedekar. This eight-year-old boy played the youngest age of Jamal Malik to perfection, making us all fall in love with him.
Ayush lives in Bhayander, a distant Mumbai suburb, and studies in a little known school called Ramaben Babubhai Dholakia High School.
The young boy has faced the camera many times before -- he has featured in commercials like Britania, Colgate, Keloggs and HDFC. He has also acted in serials like Baa Bahoo and Baby, Kayamat and Karam Apna Apna, and done a film called Family. The latter, ironically, starred his idol, for whom he even fell into a pit of excreta in Slumdog.
Life, for Ayush, is no longer the same now, even though he cannot fully understand it, given his age. He's leaving for Los Angeles on February 20 to attend the prestigious Oscar ceremony but all he's really excited about is Disneyland, one of the sightseeing destinations the organisers have arranged for him in his visit there.
In the video: Capturing the child in Ayush
Text: Patcy N | Video, Photographs: Uday Kuckian
Also See: Showcasing Slumdog Millionaire
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