The Dark Glamour
In this modern world, many child artistes struggle to adapt as they grow up, however, some manage to succeed. Daniel Radcliffe, popularly known as Harry Potter cling to our minds on the very first thought of child actors. Darsheel Safari, who played the role of Ishaan in the famous movie ‘Tare Zameen Par’too strikes our mind. Rishi Kapoor who is a veteran artist at present debuted as a child artist in his father’s film ‘Mera Naam Joker’ in the late ’70s. Amir khan, Shashi Kapoor, Puneeth Rajkumar, Leonardo DiCaprio who debuted as child artistes, persuaded their career in the film industry successfully.
Few regulations of child actors like longer works, risky stunts are prohibited in some countries. Any regulations of child actors are governed by disparate state law in the US. In California, a child actor must secure an entertainment work permit before accepting any paid performing work and also compulsory education laws mandate that education of the artistes should not be disrupted while the little one is working.
Issues involving child actors are ownership of earnings where many child actors never get to see the money they earn because they are too young to manage their accounts and earnings. Competitive pressure is also one of the issues faced by child artistes where they may experience negative pressure when working under tight production schedules. It can be observed that competition is present in all areas of a child’s life may be from sports to orchestra.
Troubles faced by the child artistes post success are many, however, the failure to retain the stardom, fame and success at a young age leads them to drug abuse and stress. It has also caused them to lead their adult lives with legal troubles like bankruptcy and scandals. A few examples of artistes who ruined their career due to the troubles caused post success are Todd Bridges, who got addicted to Cocaine whereas John Athan Brandis went to another level by committing suicide in 2003 due to reasons possibly related to his lack of continued success into adulthood.
It is common to see a child actor grow up in front of cameras. However, it is not uncommon to see child actors continue their careers throughout as an actor or in a different professional field.
by Vindhya Lakshmi
