Like Stars on Earth
Short description
Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old boy whose imagination and eye for colour, animals and kites set him apart from the adults around him, who care mainly about homework, marks and tidiness. Schoolwork defeats him no matter how hard he tries, and his frustrated parents send him to a boarding school, hoping discipline will fix what they see as laziness. Away from home he withdraws further, until a new art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh, takes an interest in him and tries to reach the boy others have given up on.
Like Stars on Earth was released in December 2007. It is an Indian drama running 162 minutes, made by UTV Motion Pictures, Aamir Khan Productions and PVR Inox Pictures on a budget of about 3 million US dollars, and it took roughly 22 million dollars worldwide. Aamir Khan directed it and produced it, from a screenplay by Amole Gupte. Darsheel Safary plays Ishaan, with Aamir Khan as the teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh, Tisca Chopra and Vipin Sharma as Ishaan's parents, and Tanay Chheda and Sachet Engineer in supporting roles.
On IMDb the film holds 8.3 out of 10 from around 231,000 votes, and on TMDB 8 out of 10 from roughly 1,400 votes, while a critics' rating of 8.4 out of 10 from 14 reviews puts professional assessment in line with the broad audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- The administration of the school Darsheel Safary attended strongly objected to him missing classes. Director Aamir Khan personally assured the administration that Safary's absence would not affect his academic performance. He arranged individual tutoring for the boy during filming, which he paid for out of his own pocket.
- Well-known Indian artist Samir Mondal painted three pictures for the film, for which he did not charge Aamir Khan anything. He usually charges between 100,000 and 700,000 rupees per painting, depending on the size of the canvas.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
