'Pakkada' Pandi goes to Bollywood

It is already known that actor Prithiviraj is making his debut in Bollywood with National Award winning director Sachin Kundalkar's 'Ayya'. He pairs up with Rani Mukherjee in that film.

The good news is that our little star, 'Pasanga' fame child artiste, Pakkada Pandi, will also debuting in Bollywood with this movie.

The 14 year old child artiste has been selected for an important role after a series of auditions held in Mumbai, recently. He is now getting ready for the shooting of the film that will begin in the third week of October.

"I play the role of a canteen boy, who speaks both Tamil and Hindi," he says.

'Ayya' is said to be a love story that takes place between a Tamil guy and a Marathi girl and Pakkada, it seems, will play the role of a friend who helps the couple overcome the communication problem.

After watching his performance in 'Pasanga', one of Sachin Kundalkar's assistants contacted director Pandiraj to contact Pakkada. And that's how his entry into Bollywood began.

"I think Sachin Kundalkar was impressed with my expression and dialogue delivery. He said that I might have to stay in Mumbai permanently after the movie releases," smiles Pakkada.

However, he has taken lessons in Hindi to understand the dialogues and to improve his pronunciation. In fact, the young boy also met Prithiviraj and Rani Mukherjee during the audition.

"Rani Mukherjee appreciated me for my acting in 'Pasanga'," he says excitedly.

Pakkada is also playing an important role in director Pandiraj's 'Marina', a story about children living on the second longest coastline in the world.

"I play a boy who sells sundal in the beach and 15 more children have acted with me," says Pakkada.

Ask him why he chooses low profile roles and the actor says that it is because "directors give me only such characters."

At present, he hasn't signed any other projects, but wants to become a full-fledged comedy actor in the future.

Does this young boy miss school?

"I'm an average student but I have to thank my headmaster, who allows me to take leave for shooting every now and then," he says.

So, any favourite comedians for the child artiste?

"Yes, ofcourse. Vadivelu and Santhanam are my favourites," he replies.