So far the closest any filmmaker has come to changing Amitabh Bachchan’s look was Raj Kumar Santoshi who got the icon to trim his trademark beard to play the cop in Khakee.

Now Balki, the mega-star’s close friend and creative ally who made the generation-challenged romance Cheeni Kam, will completely change the Big B’s look in their next film together.

The actor requires a new look, and for this purpose Balki has acquired the services of the renowned Hollywood makeup artiste Stephan Dupuis.

Dupuis, a two-time Oscar winner was responsible for Robin Williams’ utterly-credible drag act in Mrs Doubtfire.

Says Balki, “My new film Pa requires very careful calibration. Mr Bachchan will be changing over to a completely new look for the role. I won’t say we don’t have any makeup artistes in India who could’ve done the needful. But after seeing Dupuis’ work in Mrs Doubtfire I felt he was the right person to give Mr Bachchan the makeover he requires.”

The hyper-busy actor known to be extremely finicky about get-ups and false hair pieces has decided to surrender completely to Balki and Dupuis’ vision.

The internationally saluted makeup maestro who has recently styled Sean Penn in the celebrated bio-pic Milk, was familiar with the Big B’s work and is now catching some of his best films on DVD to see how far the actor has experimented with his looks in the past.

Interestingly Mr Bachchan has never done too many variations on his looks.

Not counting the wizened facial disguise in Aakhri Raasta and Sooryvansham to play the patriarch, the elaborate takeoff on Mehmood in Desh Premi and the eunuch’s song in Lawaaris.

Balki the super-gifted admaker who gave a new twist to the concept of cross-generation love by casting Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu as a pair in Cheeni Kum is all set to start his second feature film Pa.

But this time, no Tabu.

In Chennai to finalize the illustrious Ilayaraja for the music and P.C. Sreeram for the cinematography Balki explains, “I’d have loved to cast Tabu again. But Mr Bachchan has no romantic lead opposite him and it’d have looked really odd to cast Tabu opposite Abhishek so soon after she had played his father’s co-star.”

So Vidya Balan, it is.

But the focus is on the father-son jodi. A bit of a cliché, no, to cat Senior and Junior Bachchan as father and son in a film called Pa?

“You have to see it to know what they play. This is not a conventional father-son story. If Cheeni Kum was a casual comedy Pa is a casual tragedy.”

The film will be shot in Delhi and Gwalior