This Article is From Apr 19, 2013

Amitabh Bachchan's Tuesday memoir: first day of shooting Coolie after accident

Amitabh Bachchan's Tuesday memoir: first day of shooting Coolie after accident

The picture dates back to the time when Amitabh Bachchan resumed work on the sets of Coolie after the life threatening accident and Amjad Khan had come to visit the actor on the sets.

Highlights

  • Amitabh Bachchan's Tuesday memoir this week is from an emotionally-charged time, not just for the Bachchans but for millions of Indians at home and abroad.
  • Big B posted a picture of himself with Sholay co-star Amjad Khan from the sets of Coolie, on the very first day that Big B went back to work after recovering from the accident that almost killed him.
  • Amitabh Bachchan wrote on Facebook: This is quite a moment ! It is the shooting of Coolie at Chandivali Studios on the first day after I resumed work after the life threatening accident. It was a bit of bravado on my part. I told Manmohan Desai, when I resume shooting I want it to start from the same shot that I was felled during the accident. I had wanted to get up and punch the villain !! This exactly what I did ! Amjad and many other friends came to wish me on resumption of work.
  • On July 26, 1982, Amitabh Bachchan and actor Puneet Issar were shooting a fight sequence for Manmohan Desai's Coolie in Bangalore, when a mistimed punch-and-jump left Big B with a ruptured spleen. He was airlifted to Mumbai where his Deewar director Yash Chopra had an ambulance waiting. Despite an emergency operation, Big B spent weeks in coma in Breach Candy Hospital. Fans thronged temples offering to sacrifice their own limbs in exchange for Mr Bachchan's recovery. His wife, Jaya Bachchan, walked barefoot to Siddhivinayak Temple every day to pray. Among Big B's visitors at the hospital was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
  • On August 2, 1982, doctors injected adrenaline into Amitabh Bachchan's heart in a last-ditch attempt to revive him. Jaya Bachchan saw his big toe move and exclaimed, "Look, he's alive."
  • Amitabh Bachchan then went on to make a full recovery and completed shooting Coolie. Director Manmohan Desai altered the ending of the film, keeping Big B's character alive rather than having him die as was originally scripted. He said it would have been inappropriate for the man who had cheated death for real not to do so on-screen.
New Delhi: Amitabh Bachchan's Tuesday memoir this week is from an emotionally-charged time, not just for the Bachchans but for millions of Indians at home and abroad.

Big B posted a picture of himself with Sholay co-star Amjad Khan from the sets of Coolie, on the very first day that Big B went back to work after recovering from the accident that almost killed him.

Amitabh Bachchan wrote on Facebook: This is quite a moment ! It is the shooting of Coolie at Chandivali Studios on the first day after I resumed work after the life threatening accident. It was a bit of bravado on my part. I told Manmohan Desai, when I resume shooting I want it to start from the same shot that I was felled during the accident. I had wanted to get up and punch the villain !! This exactly what I did ! Amjad and many other friends came to wish me on resumption of work.

On July 26, 1982, Amitabh Bachchan and actor Puneet Issar were shooting a fight sequence for Manmohan Desai's Coolie in Bangalore, when a mistimed punch-and-jump left Big B with a ruptured spleen. He was airlifted to Mumbai where his Deewar director Yash Chopra had an ambulance waiting. Despite an emergency operation, Big B spent weeks in coma in Breach Candy Hospital. Fans thronged temples offering to sacrifice their own limbs in exchange for Mr Bachchan's recovery. His wife, Jaya Bachchan, walked barefoot to Siddhivinayak Temple every day to pray. Among Big B's visitors at the hospital was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

On August 2, 1982, doctors injected adrenaline into Amitabh Bachchan's heart in a last-ditch attempt to revive him. Jaya Bachchan saw his big toe move and exclaimed, "Look, he's alive."

Amitabh Bachchan then went on to make a full recovery and completed shooting Coolie. Director Manmohan Desai altered the ending of the film, keeping Big B's character alive rather than having him die as was originally scripted. He said it would have been inappropriate for the man who had cheated death for real not to do so on-screen.
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