Amitabh Bachchan’s life-threatening accident during the filming of ‘Coolie’ in 1982 remains one of the most unforgettable moments in Indian cinema. The actor sustained a severe abdominal injury and a ruptured spleen after a mistimed action sequence with co-star Puneet Issar. He was briefly declared clinically dead before doctors performed emergency surgeries that saved his life. Just three months after being discharged from the hospital, Bachchan returned to complete the film.Recalling that period in an old interview, late actor Rishi Kapoor shared that Amitabh Bachchan’s comeback to the ‘Coolie’ set drew an extraordinary crowd of nearly one lakh fans, highlighting the superstar’s unmatched popularity.Rishi reflected on Bachchan’s immense fan following and compared it with another legendary star. “I don’t know how big a superstar Rajesh Khanna is, but I have heard a lot of stories about him. But, I have only witnessed Amitabh Bachchan’s story first hand. I will tell you an incident that happened with him,” he said in an interview with India TV.Describing Bachchan’s return to work after recovering from the accident, Rishi recalled the atmosphere on the ‘Coolie’ set.“After his near-death episode, Amit ji got discharged, recovered, and came back on the set to resume the shooting of Coolie. We were filming in Bombay at that time, and were working on the climax. We had to take rest in tents, till the time lighting etc can be set up. Every actor had separate tents.”According to Rishi, the excitement surrounding Bachchan’s return was unlike anything he had ever witnessed. Thousands of admirers gathered outside the shooting location, creating a situation that even the police struggled to manage.“When we were waiting in our tents, around one lakh people came to see Amitabh Bachchan or the shooting of the film. The crowd couldn’t be controlled by police officials. The producers had to call the area’s local dadas (goons) to control the massive crowd. It was impossible for the police to manage it. Aisa junoon tha Amitabh Bachchan ka (there was such madness for him).”In his autobiography Khullam Khulla, Rishi Kapoor also opened up about his equation with Bachchan, admitting that the two actors once shared an unspoken professional rivalry before eventually becoming close friends.“I must admit that in those days there was an unspoken undercurrent of tension between Amitabh Bachchan and me. We never sat down to sort it out and luckily the strain evaporated on its own. It was only after we did Amar Akbar Anthony that the two of us got friendly with each other,” he wrote in an excerpt.Rishi further revealed that he still carried one lingering grievance from that era, explaining how filmmakers often built the most significant roles around Bachchan because of his dominance in action films.“I must confess there is still a lingering issue I have with Amitabh Bachchan. A big disadvantage of working in an all-star movie in those days was that everybody only wanted to make action films, which automatically meant that the star who could carry off action with the most flair would get the meatiest part. Directors and writers unfailingly reserved their strongest, pivotal roles for Amitabh Bachchan. And it wasn’t just me. Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna faced it too.”
