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Paa' Director Nearly Shelved Film Due to Amitabh Bachchan's Height

Amitabh Bachchan is a Bollywood superstar who has entertained the audience for more than five decades and has worked in many films in this long career

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By Bollyy
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Paa' Director Nearly Shelved Film Due to Amitabh Bachchan's Height
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Amitabh Bachchan is a Bollywood superstar who has entertained audiences for more than five decades and in this long career, he has worked in many memorable and challenging films, such as Paa. Recently its director R. Balki revealed that he almost refused to make this film because he did not understand how to hide Amitabh Bachchan's tall height and make him look like a 12-year-old child suffering from progeria.

Many challenges were faced during the look test

Amitabh Bachchan in the film 'Paa' - Entertainment Aaj Tak

In a recent interaction with Cinemazz, Balki recalled his experience of working on Paa, where he faced several challenges during the initial look tests for the film. He revealed that after writing the film and fine-tuning the details, he and the film's cinematographer PC Sreeram did a look test with Amitabh Bachchan to see how he might look as Auro. The PadMan director did extensive research on the progeria depicted in the film and hired a special makeup artist from Los Angeles to do it.

How was Amitabh Bachchan's makeup done in the film 'Paa', watch the video | Jansatta

However, when the artist did the first makeup trial, the filmmaker was not convinced and found Big B's look scary. The trial took place in Hyderabad, when Amitabh was shooting for another project. Again, he reworked the lighting, but he felt Bachchan looked even uglier. The filmmaker revealed that the megastar is 6'2 and big, and while planning, he did not think of him playing a child. Since he had no prior planning, technology or money to make him look younger, he felt it was all a big mistake.

Amitabh Bachchan in the film 'Paa' - Entertainment Aaj Tak

The situation turned tense when Amitabh questioned the need for further tests given the repeated delays. Since Amitabh Bachchan could not understand the situation, R. Balki had to show him the test pictures, which led to silence in the room. The filmmaker recalled, "I told PC that I think we should shut down this film; it's not going to work. It's embarrassing. Let's not spend any more money and run away from here." At this point, the filmmaker decided to drop the film and discussed it with Sriram, who suggested a way to alleviate all the concerns. PC conducted several more tests and found a top angle that made Big B look younger. As a result, he shot him from that angle in the film.

About the film 

10 years of 'Pa' complete, Amitabh becomes emotional Amitabh Bachchan becomes emotional on completion of 10 years of 'Pa' - India TV Hindi

Paa was released on 4 December 2009. It also featured Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan in lead roles. The film received praise and won several important awards that year.

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