Sharan’s son to debut in Guru Shishyaru as one of 13 youngsters he coaches

Yesterday, on the occasion of Kannada actor-comedian Sharan’s birthday, a poster featuring him and his 13 disciples in his next production Guru Shishyaru was unveiled. The film, directed by Gentleman maker Jadeshaa K Hampi is a sports drama that explores the conflict between a coach and the young players in a kho-kho team.

Interestingly, among the 13 players featured in the poster with Sharan, five are star kids, including the actor’s son Hruday. The other star kids include Surya (Ravi Shankar Gowda), Rakshak (Bullet Prakash), Ekanth (Prem), Harshith (Naveen Krishna), while a sixth, Manikanta Nayak is the son of MLA Raju Gowda. While it may seem that the makers chose kids known to them, filmmaker Tharun Sudhir, who is serving as creative director and co-producer on the project said that the team had auditioned as many as 450 kids for the 13 spots available and chose the best, hinting that the star kids too were part of the selection process.

The film, according to the makers, is a sports drama based on kho-kho, a discipline that is fast losing relevance in an age and era where cricket, football and hockey hog the limelight. The team enrolled the 13 youngsters at a KhoKho federation club in Bengaluru and trained them for about a year for the film. While this introduced the young actors to the sport, the larger intention of Guru Shishyaru is to popularize the game among people.

The film, backed by Laddu Cinemas, in association with Tharun Kishore Kreatiivez, has Nishvika Naidu, Suresh Heblikar, and Dattanna on the cast. Ajaneesh B Loknath fills in as music composer, while Sudhakar Shetty is the cinematographer of the film.