It wasn't any celebrity stylist but National award winning filmmaker Mani Ratnam himself who gave superstar Abhishek Bachchan his military-style crew-cut for the upcoming film "Raavan".

The haircut was a result of a long standing promise that Abhishek made to Ratnam a few years back while shooting for "Yuva".

"Mani Ratnam wanted Abhishek to cut his hair for 'Yuva'. But Abhishek ended up keeping his own hairstyle with a promise in store that one day he 'will allow Mani Ratnam to cut his hair'. And so on the first day of the shooting in Kerala on the sets of 'Raavan', Mani himself gave Abhishek the 'Beera' hair style," said a source.

Abhishek usually spends a lot of time detailing the look for his characters. While he had put on several kilos to look the part of Gurukant Desai in "Guru", he shed lot of weight for "Raavan".

Co-produced by Reliance BIG Pictures, "Raavan" is set for a June 18 release. It also features Aishwarya Rai, southern star Vikram, Govinda and Ravi Kishan.