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Amitabh Bachchan celebrates two birthdays – the first to mark the day that he entered the world, and the second to commemorate his survival after a near-fatal accident in the 1980s. On the sets of the film Coolie, Bachchan was injured in the abdomen while filming a scene, and spent the next several days in the intensive care unit while the nation prayed for his recovery. Bachchan returned home on August 2, 1982. A few years later, in 1989, Bachchan’s father-in-law, Taroon Coomar Bhaduri, wrote a first-person account of the recovery, and how he responded to hearing about the grave accident.
In an article for the Illustrated Weekly of India, Bachchan’s father-in-law, a noted journalist, wrote that the news of the accident ‘came like a bolt from the blue’. He wrote, “When we landed in Bombay, there were several friends including the Aroras, whom we knew and others whom we didn’t. But all of them said, ‘The whole country, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, is praying for him. Nothing will happen to him’. That night I slept soundly in the belief that if prayers had any meaning, Amit would survive.”
But being an atheist, he disagreed with the notion that prayers would have anything to do with Bachchan’s recovery. The actor was in a poor condition in the ICU, where he was paid a visit by a very emotional Indira Gandhi as well. “The next morning, Jaya took me and my wife to the intensive care unit of the Breach Candy Hospital. There he lay on a bed with multiple tubes stuck into his body, cheeks hollow and stubbled, eyes sunken. My wife, on seeing him, collapsed. He whispered, ‘Hello Baba, I can’t sleep.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, you will,’ knowing fully well that this was useless consolation. Two days later, Mrs Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi also flew in separately. To Mrs Gandhi, Amit again said, ‘Aunty, I can’t sleep.’ Mrs Gandhi broke down and sobbed, ‘No, my son. You will sleep. I also don’t get sleep sometimes, so what?’”
Teji Bachchan is seen greeting Amitabh Bachchan after his return to home post the Coolie accident. (Photo: Amitabh Bachchan/Blog)
Bachchan’s ordeal continued for several weeks, and when he was well enough to be discharged, he thanked his fans for the positivity and hope that they sent his way. “I am grateful, most of all, to all you people, who have prayed for me, my life. Be it in a temple, a mosque, or a church. I don’t know so many of you, yet you prayed for me and I am grateful for that. The least I can do now is live up to your expectations. I will try, I will try very hard. Thank you,” he said in an interview with Doordarshan, shortly after his recovery.
But his father-in-law was sure that not enough credit had been given to the medical professionals who worked tirelessly to rescue him. “All over the country, people were praying for Amitabh’s recovery. This was something unheard of—the whole country praying for one man. But there it was. Amitabh survived. My wife and a million others said it was ‘due to God’s grace’. I do not agree. I told my wife and Jaya that if Amit had not survived, everyone would have blamed the doctors. Now that he had survived, why didn’t they praise the doctors? They had no answer. They thought it was God’s miracle. I don’t think so. It was a medical marvel of the Breach Candy Hospital,” he emphasised.
The film Coolie, directed by Manmohan Desai, was released a year later in 1983. The momentous scene in which Bachchan sustained his near-fatal injury bore bold text on screen, informing the audience about the gravity of what they were watching. The film’s original ending was also altered, and it emerged as a landmark blockbuster.
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