Paa turns 11: When Abhishek Bachchan played Amitabh Bachchan’s father, turned producer for his dad

Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan worked together in a film that released 11 years ago - R Balki’s Paa. Vidya Balan and Abhishek essayed the role of parents to their kid, Aurol Arte - yet another career-defining role in Amitabh’s storied career. The movie traced the life of and struggles around the child who suffered from Progeria.

Paa was the third film to bring Amitabh and Abhishek together and had the real-life son play the reel-life father. As the makers of the film celebrate the eleventh anniversary of Paa, we bring some interesting facts about the movie:

1. R Balki’s film not only garnered critical and box office success but also brought the fifth Filmfare Best Actor award for Amitabh. Big B also got his fourth National Film Award for the role and Vidya bagged her first Filmfare Best Actress award. Paa won three more National Awards for Best Feature Film in Hindi, Best Supporting Actress (Arundhathi Nag) and Best Make-up Artist.

2. Amitabh had to spend six hours daily for the prosthetics to get ready as Aurol Arte for the film.

3. Actor Taruni Sachdev who essayed the role of Auro’s classmate, died in a plane crash in Nepal in 2012.

4. Abhishek did not want to work on the film but R Balki managed to convince him in a day. Abhishek had revealed in a post last year, “Not many know, I didn’t want to act in the film (wasn’t convinced about my role) Balki and I were shooting an ad together and he spent the day convincing me. After hours of badgering, in an attempt to just get him to stop - I said yes.”

5. Paa was also the first film Abhishek produced.

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Made at an estimated budge of ₹21 crore, Paa collected ₹48 crore worldwide, according to a BoxOiffceIndia report. After a damp opening collection of ₹2 crore, the film picked pace and earned ₹10 crore in the first weekend itself.

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