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'Little Buddha' actor finds life unpredictable
April 27, 1997
From New Delhi Bureau Chief Anita Pratap
Web posted at: 5:29 p.m. EDT (2129 GMT)NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Raju Lal is a natural showman -- 13 years old, street smart and wise beyond his years. But Raju's life has been a roller-coaster ride.
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Raju was a shoeshine boy in a poor New Delhi neighborhood when renowned Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci picked him to act in his film "Little Buddha." And by 1994, Raju was rich and famous.
"It was a lot of fun," Raju says. "Made a lot of friends."
But the good times didn't last. Raju spent half of the $15,000 he received on goodies like boots, clothes, watches and gold chains. And much of the remaining half, Raju says, has not been handed over by his Indian agent in the United States.
"We are a very poor family," the boy says, "so we can't do anything."
Raju received a few more film offers, but he claims they never materialized because his agent insisted on fees too steep for the producers.
Raju wound up back on the mean streets of New Delhi, using his wits to lure tourists to shop, and earning commissions -- until fate again intervened, this time in the form of a French businessman.
Gerard Gheleyns has taken Raju -- and his family -- under his wing since the two bumped into each other near a shopping mall last February.
"Since a long time I wanted to take care of children, and maybe God sent this one to me," Gheleyns says.
Gheleyns is partly funding the treatment for Raju's stunted growth, and has been firing off faxes and phone calls to the agent to retrieve the boy's money.
The twists and turns in his life have made Raju resilient and philosophical.
"I believe," he says, "to get something, we often have to lose something."
Prayer helps the family to cope with losses, but they can also count on Raju's ingenuity -- and luck.
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