Police couldn’t control Amitabh Bachchan’s 1 lakh fans: ‘Local dadas had to be called’

During a conversation on India TV news channel years ago, Rishi shared witnessing Amitabh Bachchan’s fandom. “I don’t know how big a superstar Rajesh Khanna is, but I have heard a lot of stories about him. But, I have only witnessed Amitabh Bachchan’s story first hand. I will tell you an incident that happened with him,” he said.

The late actor further added, “After his near-death episode, Amit ji got discharged, recovered, and came back on the set to resume the shooting of Coolie. We were filming in Bombay at that time, and were working on the climax. We had to take rest in tents, till the time lighting etc can be set up. Every actor had separate tents.”

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He recalled a sea of excited fans, wanting to catch a glimpse of their favourite superstar, Bachchan. “When we were waiting in our tents, around one lakh people came to see Amitabh Bachchan or the shooting of the film. The crowd couldn’t be controlled by police officials. The producers had to call the area’s local dadas (goons) to control the massive crowd. It was impossible for the police to manage it. Aisa junoon tha Amitabh Bachchan ka (there was such madness for him).”

Tension between Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan

In his autobiography Khullam Khulla, Rishi Kapoor had candidly revealed that there was tension between him and Bachchan once. “I must admit that in those days there was an unspoken undercurrent of tension between Amitabh Bachchan and me. We never sat down to sort it out and luckily the strain evaporated on its own. It was only after we did Amar Akbar Anthony that the two of us got friendly with each other,” he wrote in an excerpt.

He further explained, “I must confess there is still a lingering issue I have with Amitabh Bachchan. A big disadvantage of working in an all-star movie in those days was that everybody only wanted to make action films, which automatically meant that the star who could carry off action with the most flair would get the meatiest part. Directors and writers unfailingly reserved their strongest, pivotal roles for Amitabh Bachchan. And it wasn’t just me. Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna faced it too.”