Ayush Raina finds an innovative way to shoot with kids

In 2011, The National Commission of Protection of Child Rights in Clause 16.1, laid down that there should be age appropriate regulations on the number of hours a child could shoot in a day, with younger children spending less time in the studio.
This was to ensure that `minor' actors are not over-worked. While not every filmmaker is scrupulous about following these guidelines, Ayush Raina, the director of an upcoming horror film, Haunting of Bombay Mills, has come up with an innovative plan to keep his child actor daisy fresh through an eight hour shift. He has cast identical five-year-old twins, Shubh and Shresth Saxena, to play the same character, Yash, Sachiin Joshi's son in the film.
The duo usually arrive on the sets together to keep each other company. They are briefed simultaneously and given the same lines to learn. Then, the one high on adrenalin is called, while the other naps in the vanity van or frolics around.
"Very often we've opened the innings with one and ended it with the other. This way a three minute sequence shot over a day or two isn't tough on the child. Though the guidelines aren't specific to any age bracket, I personally think it's unfair to make a child work long man hours. When I started this film I wished I had two of them and my wish came true," laughs Ayush.