‘People said I was paid to kill Amitabh Bachchan, got death threats, was fired from films’: Puneet Issar recalls Coolie accident aftermath

When Amitabh Bachchan had a near-fatal accident on the set on Manmohan Desai’s Coolie, fans of the star all over the country got together to pray for him. Meanwhile, Puneet Issar, who was being accused of causing this blow as he was also involved in the stunt, was being targeted by those on the outside. In a recent interview, Puneet shared that he received death threats and there some accusations against him implying that he had been paid to kill the star. Puneet said that during this phase, he was let go from many projects and since he had to still earn his livelihood, he became a martial arts trainer during this time.

In a chat with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel, Puneet said, “Someone said that I have been paid to kill Bachchan. They said that some star who is in the opposition… people were printing lies then. Someone wrote that Puneet Issar claims that he can run faster than a train, so people were saying whatever they wanted.” He shared that he received many threats via calls. “People would call me at the house that we will not leave you, we will kill you,” he shared and added, “I didn’t do anything intentionally. It just happened, it was an accident.”

When asked if he was fired from other projects at this time, he said, “People wanted to avoid me. They said he has hurt someone, our film’s star might feel bad. News spreads like wild fire so it was blown out of proportion that he is a black belt in martial arts, he is tough, he can really hurt people, let’s cast him in a friend’s role not in a villain’s role. Such chatter used to happen.” Puneet shared that he was “dropped from 7-8 films” and had no work but he still had to make a living. He recalled that from 1982-1988, until he was cast in Mahabharat as Duryodhan, he would do smaller films, conduct speech classes, and train people in martial arts.

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The accident, that happened on the set of Coolie in 1982, ended up injuring Bachchan severely as he was in the hospital for many months afterwards. After the accident in Bengaluru, his condition worsened and he was transferred to Mumbai. At one point, he was “clinically dead” but fortunately, he recovered and was released from the hospital after a few months.