By Subhash K Jha

Darsheel has a secret. In Deepa Mehta's Midnight's Children where he plays the young hero Saleem Sinai he has beeen fitted with a very special prosthetic.

In the novel, as too in the screenplay, Saleem has a very unique and long nose. In fact Deepa Mehta wanted to cast an actor with a specially long nose. But who nose why she changed her mind.

Says a source, "Deepa got an actor Satya Bhabha with a fairly large nose to play the grownup Saleem Sinai. But for young Saleem's part Deepa was keen on Darsheel. The only problem was the nose. Deepa decided to fit Darsheel with a prosthetic nose to make him true to the way the character looked. "

Apparently Darsheel was not allowed to remove the prosthetic nose even when not shooting, quite a burden for a 16-year old to carry around.

But Darsheel acts nonchalant, "Well, Saleem is a very unique character in looks and personality. It wasn't easy playing him. But I am used to tough roles. I did Taare Zameen Par when I was only 11. "

Darsheel spent a lot of time hanging around with Satya Bhabha who plays the older Saleem. "I was told to observe him carefully and use some of his body language. I spent many evenings with Satya. He's a fun guy. We had a lot of man-to-man conversations