Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘near death’ experience after he met with an accident on the set of Coolie in 1980 left the nation in shock. The actor’s well-wishers relentlessly prayed for his speedy recovery while he was admitted to the intensive care unit at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. A year later, Jaya Bachchan’s father wrote an account of the actor’s time at the hospital and revealed Amitabh’s interaction with Indira Gandhi.
Taroon Coomar Bhaduri wrote in the Illustrated Weekly of India, “The next morning, Jaya took me and my wife to the intensive care unit of the Breach Candy Hospital. There he lay on a bed with multiple tubes stuck into his body, cheeks hollow and stubbled, eyes sunken. My wife, on seeing him, collapsed. He whispered, ‘Hello Baba, I can’t sleep.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, you will,’ knowing fully well that this was useless consolation.”
He wrote, “Two days later, Mrs Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi also flew in separately. To Mrs Gandhi, Amit again said, ‘Aunty, I can’t sleep.’ Mrs Gandhi broke down and sobbed, ‘No, my son. You will sleep. I also don’t get sleep sometimes, so what?’”
Jaya Bachchan’s father wrote that everyone who visited the actor said, “The whole country, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, is praying for him. Nothing will happen to him.” He added, “That night I slept soundly in the belief that if prayers had any meaning, Amit would survive.”
“All over the country, people were praying for Amitabh’s recovery. This was something unheard of—the whole country praying for one man. But there it was. Amitabh survived. My wife and a million others said it was ‘due to God’s grace’. I do not agree. I told my wife and Jaya that if Amit had not survived, everyone would have blamed the doctors. Now that he had survived, why didn’t they praise the doctors? They had no answer. They thought it was God’s miracle. I don’t think so. It was a medical marvel of the Breach Candy Hospital,” he wrote.
Amitabh Bachchan was released from the hospital on August 2, 1982. “I am 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 many of you, yet you prayed for me and I am grateful for that. The least I can do now is live up to your expectations. I will try, I will try very hard. Thank you,” he said in an interview with Doordarshan after his recovery.
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