Funday Times - A winning smile

'A child star,' as clichéd as it is, is probably the best way to describe her. She is the nine year old star of the movie 'Water,' H. T. Jayani Sarala. But you may know her better as Sarala a Grade Six student of Sangamitta College, Galle.

Taking a look at her life out of the movie itself, we asked her a few other questions with regard to her personal life. "Well, I like John Uncle and Hrithik Roshan" she said in response to who her favourite Indian actors are and she says that a lot of Sri Lankan actors and actresses are good.

In her spare time Sarala likes to play and watch TV, her favourite cartoon being "Scooby Dooby Doo!" "Well, rice and curry," she said when asked what her favourite food is.

"English is my favourite subject," quipped Sarala with her characteristic cheeky smile. That aside she is also a dance and speech contest whiz, having won many contests in the all island inter school level. She has also taken part in many a drama in school.

She is in the school media unit and in fact during the time they were looking for someone to play Chuyia, two years ago (when she was around seven years of age) she had already done a few programmes and she said that Chandram Ratnam (Film Location Services), Asoka Perera (Managing Director, Film Location Services) and Deepa Mehta (Director, 'Water') had seen these and had insisted that it was Sarala who should play the part.

At her audition they had asked her to act as though her mom was leaving home, and she did so and the rest as they say is history!

The shooting for the movie took three months. What she considers as her favourite part in the movie, was when she was massaging Madhumati's body (Madhumati is a fat pompous lady who rules the ashram), "I was worried that she will get hurt but it was still fun," she said laughingly. "Everyone was good… and all in the movie were like friends," Sarala went on to say when asked if there was anyone in particular whom she liked in the movie. With regard to her character Chuyia she responded sweetly and smiling, "I thought she was quite a good character." Sarala improved her English as the script for the movie was in English.

"I really like to act and I have loved doing so from my small days," said little Sarala and interestingly, she also likes miming. Sarala has been called to act in a few English movies, after 'Water' but will only take them up so long as they are not a hindrance to her school work.

"I love to go to school," she added. And she is the Primary President of the School Media Unit and is the Primary School Head. In fact during the shooting of the movie she was able to cover her syllabus with the help of a teacher in Colombo.

"Amma helps me with my acting and Thaththa is more towards my studies," she said. She is the youngest in the family and has a sister, Amani Wathsala and brother, Suban Sanjaya. "I would like to thank Asoka Uncle, Deepa Aunty and Chandram Ratnam," Sarala said. Her mother's younger sister, whom she affectionately calls "mamma," is also someone close to her heart and also someone who was with her when she was in Colombo during the filming. In fact, during the filming Deepa Mehta had done everything for her and looked into every aspect of what she needed.

In reply to the constantly asked question, whether she minded shaving her hair off, she said, "I didn't mind, because it will always grow back!"

Her message to other children is, "If you have strong feelings towards something and if you go ahead and do it, you will be successful" adding, "what you are doing you have to do it thinking it will come true!"