By: Kiran Ayodhya

Amitabh Bachchan (Getty Images)

It had all the makings of being the Bollywood version of Freaky Friday, except Jaime Lee Curtis most certainly did not have to wear this much makeup when she fictionally traded being a mother with her make-believe daughter, Lindsay Lohan.

Whether or not Paa is as freaky as its Hollywood counterpart, upcoming Hindi film starring real-life father and son team of Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan places a whole new twist on the parent-child role-reversal concept.

Although, unlike Freaky Friday, Paa features the two male Bachchans trading places to assume roles they play in real life, with Abhishek taking on the role as Amitabh’s father.

Ironically, the one person who had a hard time buying in to the role reversal was Abhishek Bachchan himself. At first, the younger Bachchan admited he was not fully sold on the script. But when it was revealed that the person playing the role of the 13-year-old disabled son was his very own father, Abhishek jumped at the opportunity to take on the fatherly role.

“It was an opportunity of a lifetime. All I had to do was be (Amitabh’s) best friend, which we are in real life,” Abhishek confessed in an interview with reporters. “I enjoyed playing Paa’s Pa.”

While he certainly enjoyed taking on the role of his father’s father, Amitabh was covered in so much makeup, the younger Bachchan was shocked to discover how the elder statesman looked while in character.

“I didn’t recognize him,” Abhishek told Express News. “I was stunned at the way he looked and behaved. He had transformed into a 13-year-old.”

With the role-reversal, Abhishek enjoyed new-found privileges on set, but once the cameras stopped rolling, both Amitabh and his son assumed their real-life father-son relationship.

“I would bully him around whenever we were doing a shot together, but once the director said ‘cut,’ dad was back to his usual self,” the actor said. “And then I had to bear the brunt of bullying him.”

Of course, Abhishek did not “bully” his father out of any insecurity but instead out of love and respect for his old man.

“Every actor is overshadowed by (my father) in a film,” Abhishek said. “But then you cannot afford to think that way and be in awe of him. I would not have done so many films with him, had I thought that way.”

The level of respect and professionalism for which Abhishek speaks of his father is not completely out of the blue, as the elder Bachchan definitely played his cards right in raising his son while establishing himself as one of the biggest names in Bollywood during the 1970s and 1980s. According to Abhishek, his father was quite professional in keeping work life at the office and personal life at home.

“Dad never brought any of his roles home,” Abhishek candidly told Express News. “We would have liked it if he had brought a character like Shahenshah home or hung a rope around his shoulder like in Deewar. But in his illustrious career, not once has he brought work home.”

But one thing Amitabh did bring home is a sense of values, and he apparently did a good job of instilling a level of appreciation and respect in his son – which Abhishek demonstrated in explaining why he ultimately accepted the role of playing his father’s father on-screen.

“I made this film for my dad and, after watching this film,” he affectionately said, “I just want dad to tell me that he is proud of me.”

The film’s directors and producers certainly hope the movie-going audience will make them proud in ensuring Paa — a emotional story of a 13-year-old boy with a rare genetic defect that causes accelerated aging — makes a solid box-office run when it releases in December.