R Balki Recalls Amitabh Bachchan Looking ‘Scary’ During Paa Look Test: ‘It Was Even Uglier Than Before’

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Veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been a part of many critically acclaimed films over the years. R Balki’s 2009 directorial Paa was one of the few that stayed with the audience for a long time. Not only was he awarded four National Film Awards for Best Actor, he was also lauded by the critics and movie-watchers for his dedication towards the role. The movie became one of the top-grossing films of the years.

Playing a 12-year-old boy with a rare genetic condition progeria, which makes the kid look five times older, the actor went through a lot of struggle. Now, director R Balki has opened up about the journey and revealed that he had considered shelving his film as he couldn’t figure out how to make Big B look like a young boy. It took a long time for the filmmaker to be happy with the look test.

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Talking to a YouTube Channel, Balki revealed that he did a thorough research on progeria and even hired a makeup artist from LA to make the transformation possible. However, he underestimated how the transformation would take place. The director along with cinematographer PC Sreeram were conducting a look test in Hyderabad to see how Bachchan would look on-screen as Auro, after finalising all the details of the script.

The 82-year-old actor’s ‘scary’ look as Auro raised a lot of concern in the director’s mind. He was quick to turn to the cinematographer and ask him what they should do. Still hopeful about it all, Sreeram was quick to arrange the lights for the shoot, but as soon as the set was lit up, Big B looked “even uglier than before,” recalled Balki.

Quoted by News18, the Cheeni Kum director added, “Because he is 6’2 and he is big, and I had not thought he is a child. Which child is 6’2? I mean he can act cute and all that but we didn’t have the technology or the money to shrink him in those days. And I had not planned for all that.”

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A delay of an hour during the trial left Bachchan feeling frustrated and he went to question the director about it. R Balki recalled, “After one hour of trials, Amitabh Bachchan was getting irritated. ‘Balki what is happening, it’s all looking fine’. I said ‘Amit ji, it’s looking f*ckall, it’s looking so bad, it’s scary.”

When he showed the photos to the senior actor, the room fell silent. Balki shared his concern and thoughts about shelving the project with PC but the latter didn’t want to give up. He went on to conduct more trials and eventually figured out a top-angle that made the Kalki 2989 AD actor appear smaller.

For the unversed, Amitabh Bachchan essayed the role of Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan’s son.

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