'Darsheel better than superstars'

Veteran director Priyadarshan says Taare Zameer Par star Darsheel Safary is a much better actor than many of the superstars in Bollywood.

The filmmaker has cast the child actor, who swept the audiences in Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par, in his forthcoming film Bumm Bumm Bole.

"Darsheel is much better than many great actors of Bollywood films," Priyadarshan told after the first look of Bumm Bumm Bole at the Phoenix Mall in Mumbai on Friday.

"He really knows how to perform and understand the character, how to behave and keep the right kind of body language, much better than many of our superstars," he added.

Priyadarshan maintains that Aamir Khan has made Darsheel a complete actor. "It was very easy to direct Darsheel as Aamir trained him very well. He has now become a complete actor," he said.

"Bumm Bumm Bole is an adaptation of Iranian film Children of Heaven directed by Majid Majidi. "I had seen the film 10 years back. Majid Majidi is one of my favourite directors. I called him and asked for the rights," Priyadarshan said.

"He was very disappointed with the film's Chinese version Home Run. When I explained to him how I was going to portray (the film), he was very happy and agreed to give me the rights," he added.

The story has been 're-modelled' according to the Indian setting, the filmmaker said. Though the protagonists of the film are children, Priyadashan insisted that it's not a children's film.

"It's not a children's film. It has got terrorism and politics as a backdrop. The problems of a family are also shown. So you can't say it is a children's film. But it's a film that children will enjoy a lot as it's a clean family entertainer," he said.

The director, who won the national award for his Tamil film Kanchivaram, believes that Bumm Bumm Bole is a turning point in his career. "I have made all kinds of film - comedies, action films like Gardish, art films like Kanchivaram. This is the first time I am making a film with two children," he said.

"It's definitely the most difficult thing to handle them, get the right emotions out of them. So, I really believe that this is a right turning point and nice feather in my cap," he added.