A children’s film has landed in an unlikely ratings debate. Little Thomas, the light-hearted upcoming feature led by Gulshan Devaiah, has been given a U/A 7+ certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification rather than a U. Devaiah told Bollywood Hungama he cannot see the reasoning: “I really don’t know on what basis they took that decision.”
Signed for its innocence
The actor said the script’s innocence drew him in. Because everyone has lived through childhood, he argued, the story is easy to relate to and leaves you with a feel-good reminder of “your bygone days.” His reasons were threefold:
- The childlike quality of the storytelling, and its sincerity.
- The chance to play Desmond — essentially the young Thomas grown up, still innocent and naive.
- Writer-director Kaushal Oza, whose The Miniaturist of Junagadh Devaiah admired before they met.
Why the certificate matters
The U/A 7+ classification means the youngest children — under seven — are meant to be accompanied by a parent. For a film built around childhood, Devaiah’s surprise is easy to understand: he assumed the material would clear the plainest bar. The rating is also a real-world gate at the counter, not just a label on a poster.
He is also comfortable treating the classification tussle as a long-running condition. “This has been happening since before I was born,” he told the outlet, adding that certification debates have persisted across eras and will outlast the current one.
Nor is this an isolated grumble. Hindi cinema produces children’s films rarely enough that each one carries outsized responsibility. Devaiah pointed out that such films travel beyond children anyway: kids rarely go to cinemas alone, and a story about childhood speaks to parents and siblings too.
The exhibitor question
The wider worry is whether Little Thomas gets the screens it needs. Devaiah is measured here. Exhibitors have electricity bills and salaries to pay, he noted, so if audiences are not arriving, a theatre will replace the title. That is not a modern ailment — films have struggled to draw an audience since cinema began, and only the visibility of daily figures has changed.
But he stopped short of pessimism. Good word of mouth combined with the right publicity can still create buzz, he argued, pointing to Main Vaapas Aaunga and Hanuman Ansh as recent examples that found momentum after slow starts.
For viewers, the practical takeaway is simpler: what matters now is whether Little Thomas finds the audience its word of mouth deserves, rather than the certificate on the poster.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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