Puneet Issar speaks, how Amitabh Bachchan had an accident on the set of Coolie film and the matter got worse due to the negligence of doctors.

A fateful first day

In 1982, Puneet Issar’s life changed forever. On the very first day of shooting for “Coolie”, what should have been a normal action sequence with Amitabh Bachchan turned into a nightmare that put the megastar’s life in danger.

“Make it look real”

During rehearsals, he had to face a common challenge of filmmaking. From certain angles, fake punches looked good.

But when they were shooting in profile, the illusion broke.

Bachchan, a perfectionist, suggested a solution that later became a disaster.

“Touch me a little,” the superstar said to Issar. “I will lose my cool anyway.”

When the timing went wrong

According to the scene, Puneet had to throw a few punches, Bachchan had to slam a board and then throw it on a table.

He had practised it carefully, but when the cameras rolled, something went very wrong.

“When I banged him on the board, he came forward in reflex action and the timing got screwed up,” Puneet recalled in Siddharth Kannan’s interview recently.

That one-second miscalculation caused real injury to Bachchan.

Worst of all situations

What happened after that was even more terrifying. According to Puneet, medical negligence worsened the crisis.

“The doctors could not diagnose what was wrong with him – that his intestine had ruptured,” he said.

“If it was just a regular intestinal rupture, they could have repaired it, but the condition worsened.”

Flight to save lives

The accident happened in Bengaluru, but as Bachchan’s condition started deteriorating rapidly, he was immediately shifted to Mumbai by plane.

Very few people know how close Bachchan was to death.

“He was declared technically dead for a few moments,” Puneet revealed, “until he regained consciousness.”

Burden of Guilt

Though not directly mentioned in the interview, this accident troubled Puneet for years.

Being known as “the man who brought Amitabh Bachchan close to death” was not easy, especially for a newcomer in the industry.

Legacy of a Miracle

Bachchan’s recovery was nothing short of a miracle. The whole country prayed for weeks while he was fighting for his life.

When he finally returned home, fans celebrated like it was a national holiday.

Today, both have moved ahead, but that moment on the set is one of Bollywood’s most infamous accidents – a reminder of how quickly things can go wrong, no matter how good the intentions are.