‘Aunty, I can’t..’: What Indira Gandhi said after seeing Amitabh Bachchan in ICU after Coolie injury

Four decades ago, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan got accidentally hit by Puneet Issar one day of the shooting of an action sequence for his film, Coolie, directed by Manmohan Desai. Big B had lost 40 kgs of weight and he became hospitalised as a consequence of internal bleeding in his lower abdomen. It became a near-fatal injury and he became declared ‘clinically dead’. The doctors, however, revived him by giving him an adrenaline injection.

Amitabh Bachchan’s accident brought the nation together as countless fans prayed for his speedy recovery. Fans even wrote letters with their blood for the actor while he became at some point of the ICU.

Top politicians too prayed for his recovery. Regarded as one of them became Indira Gandhi who flew to Mumbai after getting emotional. In a section of writing for the Illustrated Weekly of India, Amitabh Bachchan’s father-in-law, a noted journalist, wrote, “The following morning, Jaya took me and my wife to the intensive care unit of the Breach Candy Sanatorium. There he lay on a bed with a couple of tubes stuck into his body, cheeks hollow and stubbled, eyes sunken. My wife, on seeing him, collapsed. He whispered, ‘Hello Baba, I am going to’t sleep.’ I said, ‘Don’t be troubled, be sure you,’ knowing fully well that this became useless consolation. Two days later, Mrs Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi also flew in one after the other. To Mrs Gandhi, Amit again said, ‘Aunty, I am going to’t sleep.’ Mrs Gandhi broke down and sobbed, ‘No, my son. You would sleep. I also don’t get sleep infrequently, so what?’”

After several weeks at some point of the clinic, Big B became discharged. He thanked his fans and well wishers for being with him and keeping him of their prayers. In an interview to Doordarshan later, the star said, “I'm grateful, most of all, to all you people, who have prayed for me, my life. Be it in a temple, a mosque, or a church. I don’t know so a choice of you, yet you prayed for me and I'm grateful for that. The least I am going to do now may okay be are living as much as your expectations. I am going to are trying, I am going to are trying very hard. Thanks”.