Karishma Upadhyay By

Neel Sethi, or even his first-generation Indian-American parents, could have never guessed that enrolling for a Bhangra class in New York could open the haloed gates of Hollywood for him. The 12-year-old plays Mowgli in Disney’s summer tentpole The Jungle Book. Directed by Jon Favreau, this big screen adaptation of Ruyard Kipling’s iconic book also features the voices of Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Bill Murrey (Baloo), Idris Elba (Sher Khan), Scarlett Johansson (Kaa) and Lupita Nyongo (Raksha).

Neel was discovered after an extensive search among over 1,000 boys, who were auditioned across the US, UK, Canada and India. And, it all started with a Bhangra class. “My Bhangra teacher there told me about this audition. So, I went for it and the next thing I knew we were shooting the film in LA,” he says matter-of-factly. Neel was in Mumbai to kickstart the promotional tour for the film which will take him to LA, London and Paris next.

It was Neel’s mother who forced him to take the dance classes. “Every time we went to an Indian wedding, I would do break dance,” he laughs cheekily, and adds, “She would keep telling me how weird that was! She didn’t like it, and made me take Bhangra lessons so I could do an Indian dance at an Indian wedding.”

In his acting debut, Neel was the only actor on the sets and everything else was animation. “Thank God that I have a good imagination,” he laughs. While the 12-year-old doesn’t remember much of his first day of shooting, he does remember it being very hot. “We shot the motion capture bits so I was wearing a suit. I just did whatever Jon told me to. Everything I know about acting is from Jon. Most of the time, I would be shooting all alone. Everything was done in special effects. Once in a while there would be someone chasing me or puppets just to help me with the cues. I had lots of fun shooting the film because I was always running around. I like running.”

He loved making this film so much that Neel wants to give acting another shot, but there was one aspect of filming The Jungle Book that he isn’t that keen on revisiting ever. “I hated running in the mud. I would spend days just covered in mud and I couldn’t wash it off because of continuity. They would spritz me with water before takes… it was very yucky and cold! I hear people pay money to have mud put on them? Eww.”

Like Mowgli, Neel is on a massive adventure and he loves every bit of it. “I saw the film and my face is so big! I couldn’t believe that it was me on the screen. And, I have been meeting lots of famous people, which is fun. I met Chris Evans at D23 last year. He is Captain America! He is so big! And, Bill Murray is so funny. I met him at Martha’s Vineyard last year.”