Bolly Blog 7 - The Family Picture

A little about the movie I've come to India to make....

"The Family Picture" is a children's movie in three different languages - Hindu, Telegu and English - It's the story of a little boy named RAVI who is crazy about the cinema. He finds a movie camera left in a hotel by an American Movie Critic. He convinces his best friends Hamid and Shiva to make a movie with the camera in 7 days, before the critic leaves India and of course the hilarity ensues!

The boys cast in the movie are amazing kids and I sat down with each of them for an impromptu interview which follows....

Teja S. is our Ravi and our "old pro". At only 12 years old he has made 40 movies in Southern India, mostly in the Telegu language. He appeared in his first film at only 2 years old.

His favorite part was the role of the young Hero, Indra, in a recent Telegu film, which brought him a lot of fame in Hyderabad. Teja makes 3-4 movies a year and still attends school full time. Teja's school is the oldest school in the state and was built by King Salar Jung for his children to be taught. The campus is on 350 acres!

Besides movies and school Teja loves to ride horses.

Teja tells us he's not really interested in American movies - its' "Tollywood all the way!", but he hopes this film will be successful so he can come to America to...He also wants everyone to know that Snickers is his favorite candy bar and he wants to say "Hi" to his best friend Vic..."Hi Vic!"



This is our Hamid - Kunal Sharma, who plays the little movie producer in the film. His favorite American Movies are Home Alone - Broken Arrow and Fast and Furious and He also loves to go to Hindu movies. When he goes to the cinema it's a real family affair. Parents, Brothers, Sisters, Uncles, Cousins will all attend together.

Kunal loves cars and the last two books he read were the biographies of Karl Benz and Henry Ford. He is also a bit of a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and sent me to this web site...where the $20 dollar bill proves EVERYTHING about 9/11, including the fact that "Ben Laden did it!"

Kunal is also the cast smarty pants and he watches Discovery Channel and National Greographic and History Channel regularly, His motto? "Money can buy you a bed but it can't bye you sleep...." This is Kunal's very first movie and there is sure to be more to come...Watch out India!


This is Shiva who plays Onka, and our "Star" when the kids can't find a heroine He is forced to put on the dress! Shiva began in films only 1 year ago and has already made five or six Tollywood movies. Brendan Fraiser is his favorite movie star and the Mummy is his favorite movie (He says HI! to Brendan in America....)

Shiva loves dancing and loves to compose his own steps to Tollywood songs. He was orginally discovered in a local department store and hopes to go to American really soon. He'll even travel in my suit case, he tells me and this little guy is so cute I might just take him up on it...He also hopes that you will come visit him here in Hyderabad and would like you to say Hello to him in the comments of this blog...He would LOVE to hear from you!!!

More to come from the set!!!....