Do you know the actors who take away your hearts with their performances today, were also cute, charm faces in their young times? Bollywood groomed many child artists who progressed to playing lead roles and became the top stars of their era. Interestingly, majority of them happen to be star kids or those who have Bollywood connections. But, still it’s not so very easy to guess those stars as they were little unknown as child artists and could only make it big when they grew up.

Here is a list of those actors who started quite young in the Bollywood.

Kunal Khemu
Kunal Khemu is an upcoming star of Bollywood. He started his career as a child actor appearing in the television serial Gul Gulshan Gulfam in 1987. Later on, he went on to appear as a child actor in films such as ‘Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke’(1993) ‘Raja Hindustani’(1995) and ‘Zakhm’ (1998). He made his debut as a leading actor in the 2005 film ‘Kalyug’which was both critically and commercially successful. His 2007 releases ‘Traffic Signal’ and ‘Dhol’ were moderately successful at the box office. Kunal’s forthcoming flick is ‘Superstar’, in which he is playing a double role.

Aftab Shivdasani
Aftab Shivdasani started as a child artist way back in 1987 with Mr. India. He also played the younger role of two of the best Indian actors – Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan – in ‘Shahenshah’ and ‘Awwal Number’ respectively. His other films as young artist include ‘ChaalBaaz’, ‘C.I.D.’ and ‘Insaniyat’. Aftab made his grown up debut in Ram Gopal Varma's ‘Mast’.

Hrithik Roshan
As a 6-year-old, Hrithik made his debut in his father's film ‘Aap Ke Deewane’ (1980), but he got a big chunk of role in ‘Bhagwan Dada’ (1986), which starred his father in one of the lead roles. Interestingly, he wasn't related to Rakesh Roshan in the film, but played the adopted son of Rajnikanth who played the title character. He also danced with Sridevi in a song. Last but not the least; he also had a death sequence where he emoted well.

Bobby Deol
Do you ever remember seeing Bobby Deol as a child actor in any film? Well, that's because he just had a 10-second appearance in Manmohan Desai's ‘Dharam Veer’ (1977). In the film, he played a young Dharmendra, wearing the same gladiator costume that Dharamendra subsequently wears throughout the film. Bobby looks enormously endearing while breaking a stone with a hammer in the opening scene.

Aamir Khan
This actor had the privilege of being born in a noted film family. But being born with a silver spoon in mouth isn’t enough to guarantee success in life. That’s what Aamir proved the world. He appeared as a child artist in his home production ‘Yaadon Ki Baarat’ (1973). He looked cute in the 2-minute appearance in the title song where he raises his little finger to indicate nature's call. His uncle Nasir Hussain directed the film and Aamir played the younger role of his cousin Tariq, the son of Nasir Hussain. Do you know that as a child artist Aamir has also worked in a film called ‘Madhosh’ (1974)? But you might surely know that his brother Faisal Khan debuted in a film by the same name.

Sanjay Dutt
Our very own Munnabhai faced the camera for the first time at the age of 12 in his father Sunil Dutt's film ‘Reshma Aur Shera’ (1971), Sanjay danced in a qawwali song. When now you’ll watch the film you’ll come to know why he is often called ‘Sanju Baba'.