Amitabh Bachchan had an accident on the sets of ‘Coolie’ in 1982 and that shook the entire nation. The incident occurred during a staged fight scene involving Puneet Issar and Bachchan. This accident was nearly fatal but the actor came back as family, friends, fans and his well-wishers prayed for his speedy recovery. The actor was declared clinically dead but came back to life, which is why, August 2, 1982 is considered his rebirth day and fans celebrate it till date. It was clearly a difficult time for the family and now in a recent interview, Abhishek Bachchan has spoken up on it. The actor revealed that he was a child, just 6 years old when that incident took place and hence, he did not realize how tough it was. However, he credited his mother Jaya Bachchan for being a pillar of strength for the family during that time. Abhishek recalled that while he doesn’t exactly remember how that whole phase was for the family, as he was just a kid, he vividly remembers the night when it happened. He revealed that the shoot was happening in Bengaluru and he along with his sister Shweta Bachchan and Meghna Gulzar (who he fondly calls Bosky Didi) were playing at Waheeda Rahman’s house. He then added during this chat with Peeping Moon, “That night when he returned, he had a lot of people with him, helping him walk. I went to give him a hug, and he pushed me away. I didn’t know that he was hurt, and I was angry with him all night. I don’t remember emotionally too much after that,” he recalled. Abhishek shared that his mother Jaya made the hospital visits as jovial as they could in order to shield the children from any kind of trauma. He said, “Whenever we used to go to the hospital to visit Dad, Mom and he used to make it into a game. I didn’t know how serious it was. If you keep going to the hospital, you realize something was wrong. We would be more excited for the masks, and playing doctor. He had all those drips and he would say these are ‘kites’.”Expressing how his mother held the entire family together, Abhishek added, “All credit goes to my mom. I don’t remember seeing her cry or even be in a bad mood. She tried to normalize it as much as she could. She didn’t make it a traumatic experience at all. I can only imagine what she must have been going through. It must be terribly difficult. For dad, of course, it was difficult but he was dealing with it physically, but for his wife, to hold the family together in such a situation must be a difficult task. And she wasn’t that old. Maa must have been in her mid-30s that time, and two young children. I don’t remember it being a traumatic time that way, but that’s because our parents never allowed it. Humein, this feeling should never have happened, it is very bad.”
