Sunny Pawar Bio: In His Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Photos

Sunny Pawar is an Indian child actor. He is best known for his role of the young Saroo in Garth Davis‘s Lion.

Sunny Pawar Bio: Age, Parents, Personal Life

Pawar was born in one of the many slums that composes the city of Mumbai, India. He is the son of Vasu Dilip Pawar, a homemaker, and Dilip Pawar, who worked as a housekeeper.  He has two younger siblings, sister Divisha Pawar, and brother Jignesh Pawar. Prior to the film the actor (Sunny Pawar age: 15) had never left the slums. His mother, very protective of her son, made sure his daily routine focused on his studies, school, and home. He attended the government Air India Modern School. Although the energetic Sunny Pawar admired Bollywood actors and dreamed of joining their ranks, his family realistically never thought that the boy would get the opportunity to join the entertainment industry. His family has been supportive of his new future. His father even gave up his job to become Pawar’s full-time caregiver as he (Pawar) filmed in Australia and toured. His mother insists the fame hasn’t gotten to the boy’s head and that she’s determined to have him live a normal life.

Sunny Pawar Bio: Film Debut, ‘Lion’

Lion, which stars the likes of Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, David Wenham and Dev Patel, who plays an older incarnation of Saroo, tells the story of a young boy who while on a trip to a train yard with his older brother to search for food and loose change, accidentally falls asleep on a train headed to Calcutta. Saroo finds himself thousands of miles away from home in a region with a dialect foreign to his own. The film is based on the non-fiction book  A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley.

The filming of Lion was preceded by an exhaustive search to find the perfect boy to play Saroo. Davis and casting directors auditioned more than 2,000 boys whom they mostly recruited from Indian schools. Pawar’s path to obtaining the role of Saroo began when a casting team visited his Air India Modern School. “So it all started off one day in school, when a lady by the name of Alicia came, and took me and a couple of friends to do a workshop. We didn’t even know that it was for an acting assignment or an acting role in the film,” Pawar told uInterview exclusively.  “And I just had a lot of fun, and then of course I was shortlisted to be in the top hundred kids, and then this magician sitting on my left came with his magic wand and waved it, removed it to his ear, and made me number one.”

Ultimately, Pawar was picked for the role because of his resemblance to Saroo. “Well Saroo came from a very poor family and he ended up living on the street so I needed someone with a streetwise quality and an amazing instinct,” director Davis told uInterview, “Saroo managed to survive all of these perils and challenges when he was lost in Calcutta. So there was something about Sunny where he was very self-sufficient, he was independent, and he has great charm and a sense of play and all of these things connected with Saroo very quickly when I met him.

Pawar’s performance has been critically acclaimed for the maturity and emotion he is able to express as a child actor. The film has also gone on to win numerous awards such as reining in 6 Oscar nominations.

Sunny Pawar Bio: Other Works

Sunny Pawar appeared in the 2017 film Love Sonia as Bang Bang. The movie told the story of an Indian girl who fell victim to human trafficking. He also starred in the 2018 drama Chippa, in which he had the leading role of the same name.