Ten-year-old Sherief worked at a book-binding unit on Mint Street in Chennai, making Rs15 (25 cents) a day. He had to turn the wheel of the paper cutter, which sometimes left him with blisters on his hands, reported The Times of India.
At the end of the week, he would get Rs90, most of which he would give to his parents. The rest he would spend on watching movies.
Now 33, Sherief is a movie director and his maiden venture Ranam, a Tamil mystery thriller starring South Indian actor Vaibhav Reddy, will be released next month.
Sherief told The Times of India that his journey from child-labourer to filmmaker was not easy.
He grew up in Washermanpet, a Chennai suburb now known as Vannarapettai, where his father Gows Moideen delivered water cans and mother Meera was a tailor.
The family’s circumstances saw Sherief drop out after Class 5 to start work.
“Some of my friends had already started to work during the summer holidays, so I too decided to work,” he told The Times of India.
But the volunteer teachers at a nearby evening tuition centre intervened.
“My teachers at the evening school, Chithra, Selvi and Dhanam, came to my house and spoke to my parents. My mother wanted me to continue my studies. They said the fees at government-aided schools would be less and I was enrolled at St Agnes School in Broadway.”
Sherief worked part-time on weekends, pasting posters of magazines and movies screened at Bharath, Maharani and MM Theatres.
“I used to go to work at 3am to avoid being spotted by friends. I got 50 paise to Rs1 for pasting a poster. I bought notebooks with the money,” he said.
The Arunodhaya Centre for Street and Working Children also stepped in.
“They organised meetings twice a month for rehabilitated children,” recalled Sherief.
“We would discuss bad roads, mosquitoes and the lack of street lights. We were also trained to write, sing and play instruments. I wrote plays about child labour and directed skits.”
After school, Sherief studied animation and visual communication, before joining the film industry. He worked in music, art direction, cinematography and film production.
Ranam, which was written during the pandemic, will portray characters Sherief met in his life. The investigative thriller also stars Tanya Hope, Nandita Sweta and Saraswathi Menon.
“Ranam revolves around a murder mystery,” Sherief told The New Indian Express.
“Vaibhav will play a facial reconstruction artist, and one of the cases he takes up changes his life.”
Vaibhav plays a rugged character, unlike the roles the actor has done previously.
Ranam’s tagline reads “Aram Thavarel”, taken from 1st-century BCE Tamil poet Avvaiyar’s Aathichudi, a collection of single-line quotations.
“Aram Thavarel means that one should never let go of an opportunity to do a good deed,” said Sherief.
“The hero gets one such opportunity, and the effect of his decision forms the rest of the story.
“I wanted someone who had never done a thriller to be the hero of Ranam. Vaibhav fits the role perfectly, as he was also on the lookout to do something new.”
Backed by Madhu Nagarajan of Mithun Mithra Productions, Ranam has music by Arrol Corelli, cinematography by Balaji K. Raja and editing by Muneiz.
“Sherief has achieved his childhood dream of becoming a movie director despite many hurdles,” said Arunodhaya Centre executive director Virgil D. Sami.
“He is a role model and inspiration to underprivileged children.”
Indo-Asian News Service
