‘Balan – The Boy’ Director Chidambaram: ‘We Auditioned Around 4,000 people To Find The Right Faces’ (EXCLUSIVE)

After screening his film “Balan - The Boy” at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, director Chidambaram’s Malayalam survival drama about a single mother and her son (played by Farzana and child artist Adisheshan) released theatrically recently. Presented and jointly produced by KVN Productions and Thespian Films, and written by Jithu Madhavan, the film has already generated significant buzz. Speaking to Variety India about how he cast for roles in the film and especially the child at the heart of the story, coming off a humungous success with “Manjummel Boys,” the director revealed how much Adisheshan surprised him.

Of the casting, he says, “We went with new faces [for Balan - The Boy] and finding them was very tough. We auditioned around 4,000 people to find these faces. And I got amazing ones . I was very lucky they were amazing actors as well. So that really helped.”

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Acknowledging that finding the right talents among child artists is tricky, he says the reason Adisheshan stood out both in auditions and filming was his ability to improvise and remember lines. “He’s very bright, remembers his lines and he improvises. I keep thinking, ‘This is great.’ And here’s this boy, acting beyond his age. And that’s why I went with him. And those eyes… of course, tell a lot,” shares Chidambaram.

He elaborates, “Adisheshan understands some complex concepts that are beyond his age. That was the first thing I noticed about him. He never closes; he always asks questions, very inquisitive as well. He's like, ‘What is this?’ I remember him being confused on seeing us shoot with a camera and our output being this much. How would it become a big film? It perplexed him. That’s the kind of curiosity that got me really hooked to that boy.”

His talent for improvisation left an impact on the director. Chidambaram spells out the ones that surprised him. “If you have seen the film, there's a scene where the mother takes him by the collar and asks him to get ready, otherwise, she says, ‘I will throw you off and go away.’ And she exits the frame. I didn't say ‘Cut,’ just to see what he would do... so he went and took the bag and held it. I didn't give any instructions for improvisation. That means that he understands what the scene is about rather than me telling him what to do exactly. Hims hugging the school bag. That is his improvisation. I was very lucky to have him on board,” he adds.

At the end of the day, though, Adisheshan is a child and would get bored easily. Remarks the director, “By the fourth day of filming, he was bored and said, ‘I want to go home.’ We had just started and had 74 days of shoot left! The biggest challenge in working with kids is keeping them interested every day. By 7 pm, he'd come to me and say, ‘Sir, my battery is dead.’ He would come and tell me that. And would sleep on my lap while I'm shooting scenes.”