Rituparno brought M.F Husain out of Big B

On his 93rd birthday which fell on Wednesday, painter-extraordinaire M. F. Husain got a heart-warming tribute from an unexpected quarter.

"Amitda's get-up in The Last Lear was meant to be like Rabindranath Tagore. Long flowing hair and beard....unkempt and untameable. But he finally ended up looking like M F Husain," says the film's director Rituparno Ghosh.

An unexpected problem cropped up. "I wanted Amit-da to use crepe on his beard. But I didn't know he was allergic to artificial facial hair. He had used it in Khuda Gawah and Eklavya. But had decided he won't thereafter. So, we had to drop the long-flowing beard and just stick to the cascading hair." End-result? "Amit-da ended up looking more like Husain Saab than Rabindranath Tagore."

What better tribute to Husain on his birthday?