Darsheel as Zokkomon

On May 7, Darsheel Safary will be back on the big screen. Only instead of being challenged, like he was in his last reel outing Taare Zameen Par, he will be a superhero — Zokkomon.

Zokkomon also marks Walt Disney Motion Pictures’s foray into live action Hindi films, their first Indian venture having been Roadside Romeo, in collaboration with Yash Raj Films, that released in 2008.

“The story revolves around a boy who does extraordinary things. He has no god-gifted powers but only has courage and belief in himself,” says the film’s director Satyajit Bhatkal. Darsheel, in the film, is Kunal, an orphan who is abandoned by his cruel uncle. Left to fend for himself, Kunal discovers the hero within, telling himself constantly “mann mein hai vishwas to har dar hai bakwas”.

“Darsheel is the finest actor of any age group we have today,” claims Bhatkal, who shot the film in March-July 2009. “And he remains wonderfully unaffected by the success of Taare Zameen Par. The moment a shot got over, he’d play around like a child.”

In fact, the making of the film had a lot to do with the child-star’s availability. He is known to have turned away a flood of offers since TZP. “One of the first things I had in mind is ‘would Darsheel be excited to do this?’ As a child, his feedback was important for the story,” says the director who shares the story credits with wife Svati and Lancy Fernandes.

Bhatkal, who has directed India’s first commercially released documentary Chale Chalo or Madness in the Desert which was on the making of Lagaan, is confident that Disney’s backing would mount the film on the scale it deserves, so what if it lacks star pull. “Our audiences are increasingly wanting to see different stories differently told,” he says.

Alongside Darsheel, the cast has Anupam Kher and Manjari Phadnis, while the music has been composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy with Javed Akhtar’s lyrics.

Sudeshna Banerjee