By Jilawatan

Talking about my role in the film there are a couple of things, one I play a gynaecologist in the film so I actually and met up with a gynaecologist, and found out what are the routine questions that patients usually ask, the problems that people usually have and what are your responses. The best part was that she was sweet enough to help me and let me sit in on her appointments and the patients too were sweet enough to let me sit in. Besides that they also allowed me to check their BP and I actually tried it out on them. Then I also used the heart beat machine just to hear the heart beat of the kids, so it was thrilling experience and thankfully the patients didn’t mind it. So that was part of the gynaecologist.

But as a mother who has a child suffering from Progeria I needed to know the disease because I have raised the child, so I went through documentaries, I went through reading matter on it, I surfed the net on whatever information I could get because I needed that complete knowledge of what my kid has been through.

It was mindset change to play a mother because, yes, I have had the experience of my mother but I have never had to really call upon my maternal instincts so far. Especially if it’s a small child you can kiss and you can hug and you can cuddle, smother and express love and affection, but how do you do that with a 13-year-old? And that too a boy and boys that age don’t want to be hugged, smothered or cuddled or even kissed. Also the moments in the film didn’t allow you those kinds of expressions, so I had to in my head completely feel like the mother for it to reflect in the body language and the tone of voice.

Like I said all this happened two days before the shoot and it just kept getting stronger through the filming.

Coming to my co-star in the film I have shot with Abhishek earlier in Guru and he happens to be one of my favourite co-actors. I think there is a certain intensity in his eyes which is really very exciting because, one, he does not rehearse, so when you’re in a scene, he’s spontaneous and that brings forth something unplanned even in you. So as an actor I really enjoy working with him.

Talking about our relationship, initially we are lovers and then we play parents to Auro, he is our child.

About the music, personally speaking I love Ilaiyaraja’s music, it’s an identifiable sound you will always be able to tell an Ilaiyaraja song, but there’s always a freshness to it. And I think that’s true for the Paa tracks as well.

The film has been shot at different locales, a bit in Bombay, a bit in Delhi, the school portions in Malaysia and the love story in Oxford and Cambridge I think that lends it a nice fresh look and it’s very conducive to falling in love!

- Vidya