Dhairya Sorecha grows up a little too fast...

This class 6 student has already taken part in 65 commercials, been a part of  SRK's  'Kya Aap Paanchvi  Pass Se Tez Hain',  and Rakhi Sawant's  Chota Packet Bada Dhamaka.  He has also acted in movies like Babul, Partner and Tahaan. 

Coming to, L'il Champs, Dhairya Sorecha the new host of the show says "My job is to monitor the boy's team. I always support them." He is quite confident that a boy will win this battle of sexes for, "They sing better than girls!"  However he openly admits that he himself can't sing.

When asked whether he would get scared if some of the contestants who are as old as 13 years happen to bully him, he quipped , "No and by the way I will turn 11 in  August."  About the two judges, he says "Both Alkaji and Abhijeet Da, are very good and the former teases me as Chapad Ganju!"

Incidentally this is not Dhairya's first attempt at anchoring. He had hosted NDTV Imagine's Republic day show, Hum Hindustani, last year.

Ask him about Paanchvi Pass, where he acted as a contestant helper and Dhairya's cute bespectacled face lights up. "That infotainment Star Plus show was fun.  Shahrukh Khan was very nice. But he did not find it funny that elders did not know many of the answers, which kids like him knew". As an afterthought he adds, "They must have forgotten na, we remembered them for we are still in school."

Dhairya does not feel that working at such an early age deprives him of fun and studies. "I shoot mostly during weekends, so it's fine. Even if we do occasionally shoot on week days, it happens only after school hours.  I bring my books with me to the sets and study there as well.  And I never loose out on play for that can happen any where and at anytime."

Like most kids of his age Dhairya loves cartoons. "My favorite is Tom & Jerry. I dig the latter, for he manages to evade the big cat with elan. He is also crazy about cricket and got pretty angry when India lost to England last night which eventually knocked them out of the T20 World Cup."

However it was sad to see the child loosing some of his innocence when he gave the standard line "I tell my friends to treat me normally and not as a star."  Some of the training could clearly be seen when he diplomatically stated that he cannot say which of the contestants is good.

Reporter and Author: Anil Merani