PANAJI, India, (Reuters Life!) – An unusual Indian  film that casts 68-year-old Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as  a 13-year-old school boy, with his own son playing the lead,  has the world’s most prolific film industry buzzing.  

In “Paa”, Bachchan plays Auro, a teenager afflicted with  progeria, a rare genetic condition that causes a person to age  faster than normal. 

And, in an ironic twist, the role of Auro’s father is being  played by Bachchan’s actor son, Abhishek.  

“The director of the film came up with the idea that he  wanted me to play my father’s father and we set about looking  for a plausible reason to do that. That is when we came upon  progeria,” Abhishek Bachchan told Reuters.  

Posters for the film, made on a budget of around $3  million, show an almost unrecognisable Amitabh Bachchan, with a  large bald head, bulging eyes, and buck teeth, wearing a school  uniform. The film, however, focuses on the relationship between  father and son, and doesn’t “talk about the tragic life of a  progeria victim,” Abhishek said.  

Bachchan’s role and heavy make-up, which took five hours to  apply, is uncommon in Bollywood, which generally puts out films  that revolve round love stories and trademark song-and-dance  sequences, or more commonplace social or political themes.  

“The make up was the toughest part, but I don’t want anyone  to think that this is a film about progeria. This is a  father-son story at its heart,” director R. Balakrishnan said.

Bachchan, one of India’s most well-known and respected  actors, said he was intrigued by the fact that he would play  his own son’s son, but Abhishek said he deliberately distanced  himself from that real-life relationship.  

“We are actors and we know that when the camera is rolling,  all relationships go out of the window. As an actor I can’t be  thinking, “oh, he is my father, and I am playing his father.’  That just messes with your head,” he said.  

“Paa” opens in more than 700 cinemas in 20 countries today.