“Abhishek Bachchan was being philosophical, Amitabh Bachchan was being foolish’: R Balki on inspiration behind Paa : Bollywood News

Filmmaker R Balki has recalled how he came up with the idea for his 2009 film Paa, which starred Amitabh Bachchan as a 12-year-old boy afflicted with a rare genetic condition known as progeria. Speaking at a recent seminar conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Balki said that he was inspired by an incident that he witnessed while he had gone to meet Amitabh Bachchan to discuss the promotions for their film Cheeni Kum.

“Abhishek Bachchan was being philosophical, Amitabh Bachchan was being foolish’: R Balki on inspiration behind Paa

Recalling the incident, R Balki shared, “It happens in a lot of ways. A strange experience is, before I was doing Paa… A lot of people ask me, ‘Oh, how did you think of Paa?’ I say, ‘I hadn’t thought of it’. I had gone to meet Amit ji for some promotions on Cheeni Kum, and for once, Abhishek had walked into the room, and he was being very, very serious and philosophical about something, and Amit ji was behaving like a fool.”

Adding further, the renowned director asserted, “He was pulling his leg, saying something, behaving like a kid. So, I was just looking at them and saying, ‘Who’s the father, who’s the son here? If I ever do a film with these two I need to inter-change the roles’. It was in my mind, and I found an ailment to justify this idea.” Besides Amitabh and Abhishek, Paa also featured Vidya Balan in the lead.

Coming to the professional front, R Balki is currently bagging a positive review for his segment in Netflix’s Lust Stories 2, led by Neena Gupta, Mrunal Thakur and Angad Bedi. His next directorial venture will be Ghoomer starring Abhishek Bachchan. On the other hand, Big B has a bunch of projects in his kitty, including Project K and Section 84.

Also Read: R Balki on Neena Gupta’s “test drive” dialogue in Lust Stories 2: “It is just common sense”