11 October,2026 07:37 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
A still from ‘Little Thomas’. Pics/By Special arrangement, Instagram, Youtube, X
After winning attention at international film festivals, debutant director Kaushal Oza's Little Thomas, starring Rasika Dugal, Gulshan Devaiah, and child actor Hridansh Parekh, is finally heading to Indian theatres. "It is a film about family," Oza tells mid-day, describing the children's film as tailor-made for Indian audiences.
When Devaiah first heard the script, he compared it to RK Narayan's Malgudi Days. "I knew in that instant that Gulshan got the tone of the film. And I thought Rasika would be perfect to play Jessie," says Oza. Dugal, who fell in love with the script, even volunteered to learn the piano for her role, he adds.
Oza is equally grateful to producer Anurag Kashyap, who implicitly trusted his vision, and gave him a free hand to execute it. "It is a great vote of confidence when an experienced filmmaker like him chooses to come on board as a producer. Once he decides to back a script, he does not interfere at all. He puts all his faith in the filmmaker," says Oza.
The director hopes Little Thomas, releasing in theatres on October 23, opens doors for more children's films in India. Although several filmmakers want to tell stories featuring child protagonists, he says, "development teams in studios treat these films as anathema". Pointing to the success of regional children's films, Oza believes their appeal lies in how they tell stories. "The films are not childish, but told from the point of view of children, so much so, that even adults could relate to them".
Nine
Approximate number of years âLittle Thomas' took to go from scripting to India release
"Gulshan and Rasika were quite pleased that they got to do something Bollywood-ish [with the inclusion of] a song and dance number, but after the first dance rehearsal, I remember both of them asking me if they could shoot the song at the last because the movements were much more complicated than they had thought. And three dance rehearsals became 15"
Kaushal Oza
