by Subhash K Jha

It looks like Darsheel Safary of Taare Zameen Par has unexpected competition coming up this year. Just when the dust was settling down on Darsheel's stardom comes another scenestealer Aman Siddiqui in Vivek Sharma's Bhootnath.

The Big B who has worked with some of most brilliant child actors in recent times describes Aman as "cute and a natural scenestealer".

But wait. There's more. Purav Bhandare who plays a traumatized child in Santosh Sivan's third Hindi film earlier titled Dastaan now called Tahaan, is being hailed by his seasoned co-star Anupam Kher as an extraordinary talent.

"The boy is just 7, and he puts veterans to shame. He had to shoot in freezing Kashmir. And he plays the title role of Tahaan, a traumatized child and has to perform some of the toughest scenes possible.

The boy didn't flinch even once. He just sauntered on to the camera and director Santosh Sivan and asked if he has to cry and begins doing a big dramatic scene in seconds.

I've not seen anything like this! And to think Purav has no actors in his family. His father is a dentist, " gushes Anupam who's currently working with another extremely talented child actor Gargi in Hawaii Dada.

With Swini Khare matching strides with Amitabh Bachchan in Cheeni Kum, Dwij Yadav in Nanhe Jaisalmer giving Bobby Deol a run for his money and Darsheel Safary taking the lead over Aamir Khan in Taare Zameen Par, we seem to have entered an era of outstanding child prodigies in Bollywood.

Santosh Sivan is known to bring extraordinarily gifted child actors to the scree.He had worked wonders with Sooraj Balajee (remember the heir apparent whom Shah Rukh and Kareena protected?) in Asoka and the little girl Benaf Dadachanji in Halo.

Says Anupam, "The thing about Santosh Sivan is that he lets the kid intepret the character instinctively and guides him from the outside.

Shekhar Kapoor had done the same with Jugal Hansraj in Masoom many years go. More recently Sanjay Bhansali got it right with Ayesha Kapoor in Black and Aamir Khan with Darsheel in Taare Zameen Par."

How does Anupam who works regularly with disabled children, explain the resurgence of phenomenal child actors in recent times?

"Today's average child's emotional intelligence is high. Darsheel may not have known the life of a dyslexic kid. But he could imagine it and interpret it."