By Swati Vashishta - CNN-IBN - New Delhi,India
Saturday , December 2, 2006
Jaipur: A 14-year-old Sufi singer from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan has won the Best Actor award at the Brooklyn International Film Festival.
Swaroop Khan Manganiyar, from Baiya village in Jaisalmer, won the award for his performance in Joel Palombo's movie Milk and Opium. It was an achievement that this school dropout had never dreamed of.
"My director tells me they'll make another movie, so I'm working on my acting, I practice singing and acting at home," says Swaroop, who is now high not just on success, but also on hope.
Milk and Opium talks about globalisation taking over traditions in India and Swaroop says his role in the movie was challenging.
His mother now wants to see more of him on celluloid. "I want him to become a hero and make it big in life," says Samdha, Swaroop's mother.
There may be accolades abroad for him, but for Swaroop's family little has changed back home. They belong to a community of Sufi singers who live in poverty after losing patronage from their royal connoisseurs. "We are respected and valued when we go abroad and perform there but back home we have little value," says Fakir Khan Manganiyar, a Sufi singer from Barmer.
Many of these celebrated Manganiyar artists have won awards in the past, but now, eke out a living in the anonymity of the desert. They hope that at least Swaroop will make it big some day.
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