Darsheel Safary

Born into a Gujarati Jain family, Safary made his acting debut in Taare Zameen Par (2007),^[2] playing the film's protagonist Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi. Safary was discovered by script writer and creative director, Amol Gupte in late 2006 when he was looking for a male lead for Taare Zameen Par. After going through hundreds of auditions, Gupte found Safary at Shiamak Davar's dancing school, "Summer Funk". In choosing Safary, Gupte had a number of boys audition for a scene in which they would informally describe how they would "bunk" school after being given a few scenarios. He recalls, "It was a tough call. But Darsheel has the mischief in his eyes to be Ishaan. Everyone just naturally gravitated towards him."^[3]

Safary's performance as a struggling dyslexic child was praised by film critics.^[4][5] He won several awards for his performance. Taran Adarsh from indiaFM called Safary a "Master" and stated his performance merited a special award.^[6] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN wrote, "Darsheel Safary steals your heart as Ishaan Awasthi. Darsheel is a revelation as an actor, he's spontaneous and lovable and carries this film completely on his shoulders".^[7] Other reviewers called Safary the "real star of the film"^[8] and his performance as "brilliant".^[9] In a 2007 interview, Safary stated that his career plans may include singing, dancing, becoming a businessman or jewellery designer.^[10]

His second film Bumm Bumm Bole came in 2010 and according to some sources he was paid ₹ 3 lakh, the highest amount paid to any child actor at the time.^[11] He did two more films, Disney India's superhero film Zokkomon (2011) and Deepa Mehta's Midnight's Children (2012).^[12][13]

In 2012, he participated in dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa with Avneet Kaur as his dance partner, but was eliminated and came in seventh position.^[14] He took a break from acting to focus on studies.^[15]

In 2016, he played the role of Abhay in the anthology series Yeh Hai Aashiqui.^[16] He then appeared in 2023 Hindi sports drama film, Hukus Bukus.^[15] and Gujarati film, Kutch Express (film).^[15]