Lion child star facing U.S. visa struggle

Young Indian actor Sunny Pawar has been forced to miss out on attending a series of screening events for his critically-acclaimed new movie Lion due to visa issues.
The child star and his father Dilip had been due to fly from India to Los Angeles this week (begs07Nov16) to attend the American Film Institute screening in Hollywood on Friday (11Nov16), before heading to New York City for the premiere of Lion at the Museum of Modern Art.
However, they had to cancel their travel plans after failing to secure the required visas.
The news comes as a blow to producers at The Weinstein Company, who had been hoping to make a push for the eight-year-old as a possible Best Actor Oscar contender for the 2017 nominations.
The Weinstein Company president David Glasser tells Variety.com they are appealing to U.S. government officials to review the Pawars’ case.
“We are devastated that Sunny, an eight-year-old boy who is part of this amazing film and who is garnering such strong reactions from his performance, cannot be here to be a part of this experience,” he writes in a statement.
“We are doing everything we can to fight this, we believe it must be the effect of immigration paranoia. He, of course, poses absolutely no threat to anyone. We want him to be a part of the celebration of this film and his performance. We fully intend to go through the proper resources and appeal with the State Department for assistance.”
Little Sunny makes his acting debut in the moving drama, about an Indian child who is adopted by a couple in Australia, and then sets out years later to find the family he was separated from during his youth.
Lion, which also stars Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, and Dev Patel, opens in movie theatres later this month (Nov16).