March 2016 will forever remain special for child actor Gaurav Menon, who won two awards this month.
March began with the announcement of a Kerala State award for his performance in Malayalam film Ben. He then picked up a National Film Award for best child actor for the same film, on March 28.
At eleven, this grade six student of St Aloysius School in Pallurthy is a busy actor. When the National Awards were announced, Gaurav was working on the sets of Kolumittayi, and missed the cake-cutting celebrations organised by his school in his honour.
If I had any doubts about conducting a telephone interview with an 11-year-old, Gaurav proves me wrong as he gets chatting like a professional.
Gaurav’s film career began when he was studying in grade three, with the successful Malayalam film Phillips and the Monkey Pen. He was selected through auditions. For a long time, he was recognised as Jugru, his character from the film.
Out of the 22 films he has worked on so far, he counts Jilebi, Homely Meals and Oru Vadakkan Selfie among his most special.
But Ben, the Malayalam film that fetched him two awards, is his favourite and his toughest role yet.
Ben, directed by Vipin Atlee, is about the ordeal that a boy goes through when his mother moves his from an ordinary government school to an English medium school. The boy finds it hard to adjust to the new environment; meanwhile, his mother is breathing down his neck to do well in school.
“I had to put in great effort for portraying various emotions,” says Gaurav.
A trained Carnatic singer, he also performed the song Oh Ente Jeevitham in Ben.
Gaurav is now shooting for Kolumittayi, directed by Arun Viswam, a story about four children.
Gaurav plays “Unni, who is both funny and serious.”
He has listened to a couple of scripts but is yet to commit himself to any new projects.
It’s his dream to act in a Tamil film with actors Kamal Haasan and Vijay, but while he enjoys acting, Gaurav’s ambition is to join the navy.
