Amitabh Bachchan plays Abhishek Bachchan’s 13 year old son Auro in Balki’s Paa affected by a rare abnormality marked by premature aging
Abhishek Bachchan is all praise for real-life dad Amitabh Bachchan who is bound to leave audiences in awe with his performance in Paa. Director Balki who earlier directed Amitabh Bachchan in Cheeni Kum with Tabu got the idea of Paa after researching over the disease Progeria and also a certain day when he saw both father – son bonding, ‘The idea came when I walked into Amitji’s office one day and found Abhishek there in a very mature mould. I was completely fascinated seeing a sombre Abhishek and a playful Amitji who was lounging around. The scene I saw made it seem like Abhishek was the elder and Amitji was the son.’Balki did intense research on the topic and said, ‘I read extensively about it and learned that there are only 40-odd cases of children across the world who are afflicted with this disease. It matched the concept I had in mind. So in a way I found the concept first and then went looking for a disease to match it. Not the other way around.’ Abhishek spoke of his experience during the shoot saying, ‘Paa was an unique experience, in fact the unique nature of this role was the reason I chose to do the film. The film gave me the opportunity to see how real life role reversal works. When Balki first spoke to me about the film and the concept he had in mind, I told him immediately, ‘I am on!’ It is not every day that you get to play your father’s father. It was great working together and he was a good son!’ Balki signs off saying, ‘The film’s USP is that it will be the only time when you get to see a son playing his dad’s dad and also the one time when you get to see a father playing his son’s son.’
