Yash – Child artist who played Kochundapri in Blessy’s Kaazhcha

Yash is a former child artist associated with Malayalam cinema, who shot to fame with her debut flick, Kaazhcha, the maiden venture of ace director Blessy. He played the memorable role of Pavan alias Kochundapri, a boy who gets separated from family during Gujarat earth quake. It’s the single Malayalam movie of Yash, and he shared Kerala state award for best child artist with Sanusha, who played Ambili in the movie.

Yash marked his screen debut at the age of 7

Yash belongs to a business family. He joined films at the age of 7. He completed his MBA from Jaipur, and did his interim at Kochi during the occasion of 15^th anniversary celebration of Kaazhcha. For his debut film, his father helped him to learn Malayalam dialogues. As it was not easy to carry film journey along with the business career of his father, he left acting soon after his debut movie, and continued his studies. He decided to join films after completing studies.

He impressed Blessy by his gaze to get his maiden role

Blessy wanted a Gujarati boy to do the role, and hence reached Gujarati school of Mattanchery, where he was spotted. Though many students gave their performance CDs, Blessy chose him for his style of gazing. He was standing and watching a performance, when he was noticed by Blessy. He took him to producer’s residence. Seeing apple and grapes placed on table, he started eating and within a few moments, he was finalised for the role.

After he left Kerala, he came back on the occasion of 15^th anniversary celebration of Kaazhcha, and met his co-stars including Mammootty and Sanusha. He also met Mammootty after many years, when the actor became the chief guest of Gujarat school. Though he hesitated to go and talked to the megastar, he was friendly to him. In fact, during shooting, Yash used to sit in the lap of the actor without fear if others come to scold him for doing mischief. At that time, he never knew Mammootty was such a popular figure.

Yash – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. He shared screen space with Sanusha for the ad of John’s Umbrella. Apart from Kaazhcha, it’s his single screen appearance.

2. Though he appeared as a fat boy in ‘Kaazhcha’, later he shed his pounds through sports. While studying in St. Albert’s, he has played cricket and table tennis till state level.

3. During his early days, soon after movie, people used to call him, Undrapri. Slowly he also forgot the name.

4. The scene where Kochundapri reaches home in a boat was shot without telling him the fact that, there is a dog. The moment he reached courtyard, the dog ran after him and that’s why the scene is so natural. The dog used for shooting belonged to Sanusha, and it was taken to shooting location from Kannur in a train.

5. ‘Mujhe Bhuk Lagi’ was one of the common dialogues used in the film. As Yash is a vegetarian, his food always reached late, and very often he used to cry.

6. In the film climax, the child Yash cries seeing his damaged house. Yash was really crying in the scene without using glycerine, as the director lied to him that his parents have left him and the crew will also move soon, leaving him alone there.