‘Baththa’: Who is Sai Prithviraj, the boy wonder making waves in Vijay Sethupathi-starrer?

Sai Prithviraj in a still from ‘Baththa’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A child cries and expresses all the pain he carries, prompting a hall full of adults to hoot and applaud the boy’s performance.

Director Balaji Tharaneetharan’s latest film, Baththa, starring Vijay Sethupathi, had a little surprise in store for audiences when it hit theatres on October 1. Though the makers consciously promoted the film as a gangster drama, Baththa had a mature story about repression and the masks we wear, told from a child’s perspective.

Child actor Sai Prithviraj, who played the film’s protagonist, Sabari, feels over the moon to see the reception the film has been garnering. He is eager to see what his friends at school would say. “I have been busy with the promotions. So I haven’t called my friends, and neither have they called me yet. But I think they will tell me after one week, when I go to school,” says the nine-year-old who would be displeased if I don’t mention that he would be “9+” in March next year.

Sai developed an interest in acting after his sister, Kayal, an actor who worked in Vijay Antony’s Maargan. “My sister taught me acting, and I started liking it. So when I got the opportunity to do Baththa, I asked her to teach me after school,” says Sai, adding that he also goes to dance classes and football classes. He almost sounds offended when I ask if going to acting classes was in the plan. “No, I have never been to acting classes! It’s all my own.”