Child star of India’s Oscar entry Rahul Koli dies at 10 after fight against leukemia

Rahul Koli, the 10-year-old child star of India’s Oscars entry ‘Chello Show’ ('Last Film Show'), died of leukaemia at a cancer hospital in Ahmedabad on October 2.

Family members of the child star held a prayer meeting at their village, Hapa near Jamnagar on Monday. 

Ramu Koli, father of Rahul who is an autorickshaw driver, said, “He was so happy and would often tell me that our lives would change after October 14 (the release date of the movie). But he left us before that.”

The film is India's official entry to the 95th Oscars. The Gujarati-language coming-of-age drama was set to release theatrically across India on Friday (October 14), but audiences can catch it in advance on Thursday night itself.

Surprise! Releasing a show earlier!
To celebrate India’s Entry into
95th Academy Awards,
95 Cinemas across India will release the movie on their Last Show of Thursday 13th Oct at 95 Rs!!@LastFilmShow1 @roykapurfilms @pvrcinemas_official #chhelloshow #oscars2023 pic.twitter.com/jATJnCbfr9

— Nalin Pan (@PanNalin) October 10, 2022

In the movie, Rahul played the character, Manu, son of a railway signalman and close friend of the lead character Samay. 

'Last Film Show' is produced by Roy Kapur Films, Jugaad Motion Pictures, Monsoon Films, and Chhello Show LLP. Roy Kapur Films in partnership with PVR is distributing the film in India. 

Meanwhile, the film will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films in the USA and by Orange Studio in France. Shochiku Studios and Medusa are bringing the film to Japanese and Italian cinemas respectively.