Kishan Shrikanth

Kishan Fendlen(born January 6 1996, professionally known as Kishan, Kishan SS or Master Kishan, is a Indian-language actor & director from India. He is the "Youngest Director of a professionally made feature length film" as acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records (GBWR). As of January 2006, having acted in 24 films and in many popular Indian soap opera (more than 500 episodes), he was in the process of directing a feature film, C/o Footpath (Care of Footpath), about an orphaned boy who wants to go to school. The film is adapted from a short story he wrote himself, and the cast includes prominent Indian actors Jackie Shroff, Saurabh Shukla, B.Jayashree, Sudeep and Taara. Kishan himself plays the lead. The film has been dubbed into the 5 major Indian Languages. It was first shot in Kannada and the Kannada version was released on 26th November 2006. The Tamil version of the film called Sathanai was released in January 2007. The Malayalam and the Hindi versions of the film are yet to be release in this year. Kishan will be, in all likelihood, the youngest director ever to release a commercial feature film. Shroff said of Kishan: "He is such a genius that I had to work in his film. He is constantly thinking about his next shot, constantly innovating to make it better. He is sure about what he wants from his actors".

Kishan counts Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Amitabh Bachhan among his favourite actors.
In November 2006, Kishan found place in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest person to direct a professional feature film. He replaces Sydney Ling, who was thirteen in 1973 when he directed the Dutch film Lex the Wonderdog.

Care Of Footpath

This is the story of an orphan slum boy who is adopted by an old lady who finds him on a footpath. She brings him to live with her in the slum. With his friends, he makes a living picking up rags. An encounter with some school students who call him an uneducated brute, changes the life of this slum boy. This makes him take up a challenge to get educated. How this boy finds a way to live his dream: going to school to get an education, amidst all odds and evens is the line of the story. This is the success story of a street boy and is inspired by true life stories of great people like Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Faraday, and our Ex-President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam. The movie Care of Footpath was released in Kannada language on 26, November, 2006 and successfully ran for more than 100 Days in Karnataka

Director - Kishan Says About His First Directorial Venture C/O FOOTPATHH

I was inspired to do this movie based on an incident that took place in my life when i was 7 yrs old, and since then i have been thinking about the under privileged who need some motivation and inspiration in their life to pursue their education in spite of all the requirements being attended by government, and be better human beings, and work towards one earth. "I have dedicated this movie to all the underpreviledged children of this world. This movie was made for the underpriviledged who want to fight their disabilities with courage . The main message of my movie is "no matter what you are and no matter how weak you are, every thing is mind over matter and if one believes in this, nothing on this earth can stop them". Inspired by true life stories of genius prodigies like Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Faraday, and Ex President of India A.P.J.Abdul Kalam sir, all three of them used to sell news papers, to study and to go to school or to make a living. And one day they could do something very big and phenomenal for the mankind.

Filmography

1. He started his career as a child model at 3 years and then began acting in films at the age of 4 years. At the age of 12 years now he has acted in 28 Feature films and featured in more than 300 Television episodes.

2. At an age of 6 years he became a play back singer and has sung in more than three feature films and four private albums.

3. He learnt Photo-designing and works on Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw.

4. He learnt cinematography and the art of direction during his shooting schedules. As Kishan puts it… he learnt the art of Direction starting from a light boy up to the Cinematographers and from a clap boy to a Director on the sets when he was acting.

5. He is also an Editor. (He works on Final Cut Pro- FCP).

6. He is now learning 3D-computer graphics.

7. Master Kishan has directed the movie "Care of Footpathh" at the age of 9 years. One day when he watched street children selling newspapers on the street, he wondered as to why these children were not going to school. He wanted to inspire them and he wrote a story. This story was directed by him. He dedicated this film for all the underprivileged children on this earth. He is now the World’s Youngest Director as recognized by the Guinness books of World Records of a professionally made feature length film and also

Awards and Accolades

• Winner Swarna Kamal- National Film Award for Best Children’s Film- 2006

• Winner National Award for Exceptional Achievement – Government of India 2008

• Winner State Jury Award - Best Film for “C/O Footpathh” 2006

• Winner State award - Best Child Actor 2006

• Opening film Kids for Kids International film festival-Cyprus 2006

• Winner Telephono Azzuro’s “Children’s Right Award” at the Giffoni International Film Festival-Italy 2007

• Winner Chamber of Deputies award (the second best film) at the Giffoni International Film Festival-Italy 2007

• Closing film Busan International Film Festival at South-Korea 2007

• Winner Children’s Right Award-The Film and Television association of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 2007

• Official selection Chinh India film festival- New Delhi 2007

• Official selection Mumbai Children’s film festival 2007

• Winner Silver Elephant Award as the best child actor at the 15th Golden Elephant International Children’s Film Festival held at Hyderabad.

• Winner International Children’s Jury Prize - Cairo International Film Festival for Children Egypt, from March 03- 06 / 2008 and

• Special International Jury Prize – Cairo International Film Festival for Children – Egypt, from March 03- 06 / 2008 (Competition Section).

• Winner Alexandria international film festival award (Journalist Syndicate-Cairo)

• Winner South India Cinematographers Association Award, May 1st 2008

• Winner Special Honorary Award, Emotion Pictures 2nd International Festival, Documentary & Disability, Athens, Greece June 21 to 23, 2008.

• Official selection 22nd International Festival of Films for Children & Young Adults, International competition section, Tehran, Iran June 21-25, 2008.

• Closing Film Flicks International Film Festival for Children- Saskatoon, Canada. September 2008.

• Official selection Armenia International Film Festival for the Children and the young, Republic of Armenia October 16th 2008.

• Winner 5th International and Youth Film Festival, Spain, Europe, November 17th-23rd 2008.
Best Film – Children’s Jury Award
Best Actor Award

References

• Meet the director, all of nine years old!, Rediff, January 12, 2006. Accessed 13 January 2006.
• Master Kishan aiming for Guinness Record!, Viggy.com, undated. Accessed 13 January 2006.
• Dean Nelson, Director, 9, calls shots in Bollywood. The Sunday Times (London), January 22 2006. Accessed 4 February 2006.
• Varuna Verma, Super kids are here, The Telegraph (Calcutta), October 2, 2005. Accessed 13 January 2006.
• CBBC newsround report on Kishan and the shooting of C/O Foothpath. BBC. Accessed January 25 2006.
• Film director, 10, calls the shots. BBC, 24 January 2006. Accessed 4 February 2006.
• R.G. Vijayasarathy, Kishan gets Guinness nod. Rediff, November 13, 2006. Accessed November 13 2006.

External links

• C/o Footpath micro site. Uses Macromedia Flash on home page, but that can be bypassed by starting with this link.

• Master Kishan's Official Site.