It was in 1982 that Amitabh Bachchan went through the biggest nightmare of his life! During an action sequence, he was brutally injured while shooting for Coolie. So much so that we were admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, and his condition worsened quickly, so much so that he was announced clinically dead!
The entire nation was praying for Amitabh Bachchan’s revival, and it was said that his wife, Jaya Bachchan, used to walk barefoot to the Siddhivinayak Temple to pray for his recovery and well-being! On Simi Garewal’s chat show, the power couple recalled the dreadful incident and what happened that day.
Simi Garewal asked Amitabh Bachchan about what had happened after Coolie‘s accident, since he was announced clinically dead! Recalling the nightmare, he said, “The sutures ruptured, and I had to have surgery. It was the end of that surgery when I couldn’t come out of anesthesia for 12-14 hours. That’s when they felt it was all over because there was hardly any pulse, BP was down to almost zero.”
Adding to the trauma, Jaya Bachchan recalled what happened next. She narrated, “When I reached the hospital, my brother-in-law said, ‘Where were you? We were searching for you! We have been looking for you?’ And I said I went home to see the kids. Then he sort of took me up. He asked me to be brave, and then I am going to tell you. I was like, no it’s not possible, he’s not going to do this. I know it’s not possible.”
Visibly shaken, she continued, “I had the prayer book in my hand, Hanuman Chalisa. Dr. Dastoor passed by and said, ‘It’s only your prayers that’ll help.’ But I couldn’t read it. I couldn’t see what they were doing, but I could see that they were pumping his heart, and they were giving him injections. And after they gave up, I saw his toe move, and I said, ‘He moved, he moved.’”
However, the strangest coincidence was very scary. Jaya Bachchan revealed that the same day, another man died at the same time, and he was born on the same day as Amitabh Bachchan. She told Simi Garewal, “It was so strange, the same day, at the same time, there was another man at the ICU, another cubicle who died at the same time. Born on the 11th of October, 1942. I mean, it was just shocking.”
Amitabh Bachchan finally recovered from the dreaded incident, and it is believed that he sort of got a second life that day!
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