Darsheel Safary (born 9 March 1997) is an Indian actor who appears in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, Gujarati films and television. Safary made his film debut with the leading role of a dyslexic student in

Aamir Khan Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan (; born 14 March 1965) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and television personality who works in Bollywood, Hindi films. Referred to as "Mr. Perfectionist" in the media, he is known for his work in a variety of film g ...

's directorial debut, the critically acclaimed drama ''

Taare Zameen Par ''Taare Zameen Par'' (), also known as ''Like Stars on Earth'' in English, is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language drama film produced and directed by Aamir Khan. It stars Aamir Khan, with Darsheel Safary, Tanay Chheda, Vipin Sharma and Tisca Chopr ...

'' (2007), for which he won the Filmfare critic's Award for Best Actor.

Career

Born into a

Gujarati Jain Jainism has had a notable following in Gujarat. According to the 2011 Census of India, around 0.959% of the population of Gujarat is Jain. There are several old Jain temples that draw pilgrims from Jains around the world in places such as Palita ...

family, Safary made his acting debut in ''

'' (2007), playing the film's protagonist Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi. Safary was discovered by script writer and creative director, Amol Gupte in late 2006 when he was looking for a male lead for ''

''. After going through hundreds of auditions, Gupte found Safary at Shiamak Davar's dancing school, "Summer Funk". In choosing Safary, Gupte had a number of boys audition for a scene in which they would informally describe how they would " bunk" school after being given a few scenarios. He recalls, "It was a tough call. But Darsheel has the mischief in his eyes to be Ishaan. Everyone just naturally gravitated towards him." Safary's performance as a struggling

dyslexic Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...

child was praised by film critics. He won several awards for his performance. Taran Adarsh from ''

indiaFM Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides ...

'' called Safary a "Master" and stated his performance merited a special award.

Rajeev Masand Rajeev Masand (born 13 March 1976) is an Indian film critic and journalist. He has worked for Noida based English language news channel CNN-Indian Broadcasting Network (CNN-IBN). He usually reviews Bollywood films and major Hollywood films rel ...

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wrote, "Darsheel Safary steals your heart as Ishaan Awasthi. Darsheel is a revelation as an actor, he's spontaneous and lovable and carries this film completely on his shoulders". Other reviewers called Safary the "real star of the film" and his performance as "brilliant". In a 2007 interview, Safary stated that his career plans may include singing, dancing, becoming a businessman or jewellery designer. His second film '' Bumm Bumm Bole'' came in 2010 and according to some sources he was paid ₹ 3

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

, the highest amount paid to any child actor at the time. He did two more films,

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's superhero film '' Zokkomon'' (2011) and

Deepa Mehta Deepa Mehta, (; born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996 film), ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth (1998 film), Earth'' (1998), and ''Water (2005 film), Water'' (2 ...

's ''

Midnight's Children ''Midnight's Children'' is the second novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a pos ...

'' (2012). In 2012, he participated in dance reality show '' Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa'' with Avneet Kaur as his dance partner, but was eliminated and came in seventh position. He took a break from acting to focus on studies. In 2016, he played the role of Abhay in the anthology series '' Yeh Hai Aashiqui''. He then appeared in 2023 Hindi sports drama film, '' Hukus Bukus''. and Gujarati film, '' Kutch Express (film)''.

Filmography

Films

Television

Web series

Music videos

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Safary, Darsheel Indian male film actors 21st-century Indian male actors Indian male child actors Living people 1997 births Filmfare Awards winners Zee Cine Awards winners 21st-century Indian Jains Male actors from Mumbai Gujarati actors