Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and martial art movies, Samrat Mukherjee's interests are similar to any 10-year-old's. But what set this Class V student of Calcutta Boys' School apart are his karate skills.

Samrat took home the Junior Male Karateka of the Year trophy at the recently conducted Zenith '15 Inter-school Karate-Do Championship and struck gold at a state-level karate championship as well.

"Samrat started practising in school when he was five. Now, he says he wants to continue for life," said his mother Kalpana Mukherjee. The action film buff balances his passion with studies and his favourite subject is science.

Samrat is among the emerging karatekas who caught everyone's attention at Zenith '15, a two-day event featuring more than 400 participants from 28 schools.

Navaneel Rozario, a Class VII student of Don Bosco, Park Circus, has his sights set on participating at a national-level karate meet. Enthusiastically talking about his fascination with the Japanese form of martial art, he said, "I took up karate as I wanted to learn how to fight and defend myself. I practise at Gurukul, Salt Lake, and won't stop till I achieve the Black Dan rank."

Karate is by no means an all-boys domain. Lavanya Dugar of Class V, Apeejay School, Salt Lake, started learning karate for self-defence. She also drew inspiration from her brother Rohit - a Class X student of Apeejay School, Salt Lake - who has already won many medals and trophies in karate.

"She can swim and dance as well but it's only karate which actually holds her interest. She has been involved with it since 2009," said mother Lalita Dugar about the winner of the Junior Female Karateka of the Year at Zenith '15.

Lavanya's mother has noticed a marked change in her behaviour since she took up karate. "Earlier, she was shy and quiet. But now it seems that she has grown in confidence." Lavanya is also thankful to her parents and her school for being so supportive.

Schools seem to play a major role in developing students' interest in such forms of extra-curricular activities. For Anushka Ray Chaudhuri, a Class VII student of Calcutta Girls' High School, karate was one of the many club activities the school organised till it caught her attention. "It was the best of the lot. I've continued practising in school for the past four years," said Anushka.

Apart from focusing their interest on the traditional arts such as music, dance and theatre, the city's schools have turned to martial arts and self-defence classes and seeing the buzz generated at Zenith '15, the interest is certain to only grow in the coming years.