Amitabh Bachchan is 33 today, Or so, billions of his fans all over the world would believe this were the case – since exactly 33 years ago, Big B survived a near fatal incident on the set of the movie Coolie. In many ways, therefore, August 2 is a day of ‘rebirth’ for the megastar – as the latter himself has always humbly claimed.
Take a look at his tweet this morning.
That Moment in 1982...
In one infinitesimal moment in 1982, when a mistimed jump made him land on the corner of a table (instead of on it, as he was meant to), a billion hearts stopped beating. Puneet Issar, who had been his costar in the scene, was immediately subjected to an onslaught of hate and rage like rarely seen before in the world of Hindi cinema.
While the accident took place on July 26, 1982 – while shooting Manmohan Desai’s Coolie in Bangalore – Amitabh regained consciousness only on August 2, thanks to the toil of a team of doctors at Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai. Desai has gone on record several times since the incident to talk about how Bachchan fell with a shriek, after which the star was airlifted to Mumbai for emergency treatment.
Countless fans prayed across the world, and in front of Breach Candy Hospital – till that iconic moment when Jaya Bachchan saw one of his toes move and exclaimed: “Look, he’s alive”.
Bachchan has over the years tweeted about his “second birthday” emotionally. In one tweet, he spoke about how his father was “in tears” when he saw his son come back alive.
Twitterati too has come together in joy to celebrate the same. #BigB2ndBirthday, in fact, has been trending fast on Twitter – showing that the Indian fan still remembers and is still grateful.
This might be the most memorable tweet of all, though. Desai, after the Coolie accidnet, had become so overwhelmed that he changed the original ending (where Big B’s character was supposed to die) and brought him back to say the famous line: “Main to chala gaya tha, laut ayya hu to bas aapki duaaon se”. Homage is paid by this tweet:
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