Sunny Pawar's next film is with Rooney Mara

Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara

Sunny Pawar

After winning laurels for his performance in Garth Davis's 'Lion', eight-year old Sunny Pawar has already bagged his next film.

The child actor, who is currently in the US, will star in a historical drama alongside Rooney Mara of 'Carol' and 'The Girl With Dragon Tattoo' fame.

A source close to him informs, "Garth loved his innocence and roped him for his next movie. He starts shooting for it in May."

A unit hand further adds, "The film is still in pre-production stage. The final draft of the script is still being worked upon."

Rooney Mara

Following the success of 'Lion', which received four Golden Globe nominations and two Screen Actors Guild award nominations, Sunny's co-stars, Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, have been putting in a good word for the little boy.

Speaking about casting Sunny in the film, Garth had earlier said, "He was five-and-a-half years old, so he's incredibly young and anybody in film knows it's almost a miracle what we pulled off. We just took it very seriously. We didn't take it for granted. We did a lot of prep and had a lot of great people. We never worshiped the child. We kicked him at ground level and never made him feel extra-special.

"And we tried to keep it as fun as possible, and I think that approach allowed him to do some really beautiful work. It's my job really, to have a very strong instinct for talent before it's been realized, so I could sense the kid had all the qualities he needed and you could get it out of him."