33 Years After Coolie Accident, Big B Thanks Fans For 'Rebirth'
Actor Amitabh Bachchan is 33 today. August 2 is the day of rebirth for him after his near-fatal accident on the sets of the film Coolieon July 26, 1982, exactly 33 years ago. "The dark shadows that loomed large on August 2, 1982 at the Breach Candy Hospital, as I battled for life, having been under surgery for the second time within days, and not coming out of it for extended hours, Jaya being called in to the IcU to have a last glimpse of her husband, before I passed away and that last ditch effort by Dr Udwadia in pumping phial after phial of cortisone injections until miraculously, my toe moved and Jaya first noticed it and exclaimed 'Look, he's alive'." Big B who took several months for a full recovery, also revealed that he saw his father in tears 'for the first time ever', when he returned home after his accident. On July 26, 1982, Amitabh Bachchan who was shooting for Manmohan Desai's Coolie in Bangalore suffered the infamous fatal injury on the sets of the movie, when he made a mistimed jump. He was filming a punch-and-jump sequence with co-star Puneet Issar and was brutally hurt by the edge of a table, on which he was supposed to land after the jump.

Immediate arrangements were made, he was flown to Mumbai and was admitted straight to Breach Candy Hospital, with help from both his Coolie director and Yash Chopra who has directed Silsila. Mr Bachchan, who had his spleen ruptured, was unconscious and unable to speak all the while till he underwent operation in Mumbai, but with no hope of survival. He remained in a critical condition for more than a week urging an entire nation to mourn in anticipation of a fatal outcome. His actress-wife Jaya Bachchan, walked barefoot from Breach Candy to Siddhi Vinayak Temple every day to pray for his recovery.

He resumed shooting Coolie which performed exceptionally well at the box office after its released on November 14 1983.

Big B, who also suffered a minor chest injury while filming Ram Gopal Varma's Department in 2011, will next be seen in Bejoy Nambiar's Wazir alongside Farhan Akhtar.

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