When Amitabh Bachchan ran into a fire to save wheelchair-bound Tabassum, saved her life: ‘I was shouting for help…’

Amitabh Bachchan has performed many heroic stunts in his movies but not many know that Big B is just as heroic in his real-life as well. Bachchan has walked across fire, jumped from top of tall buildings and even faced a near-fatal accident during his movies but these experiences helped him in becoming a person who was fearless in the time of crisis.

In a 2014 interview, late film interviewer Tabassum, who hosted the Doordarshan talk show Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan, shared that Amitabh once saved her life when a fire broke out. Tabassum said that she had done many live stage shows with Bachchan but once, during a show in Mumbai, a fire broke out. “This took place at Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai. I was sitting in a wheelchair and conducting the show as my leg was fractured. Suddenly, there was a fire and that caused a stampede. I started shouting for help. Nobody responded. They were all running for their lives. Then Amitji came. He took me to a safe place. Today, I am alive because of him,” she told Rediff.com.

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Tabassum started hosting Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan in 1972 and went on to do the show for 21 years. In the same interview, she said that shows like Koffee with Karan were, in fact, inspired by her show. “Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan was the pioneer of chats shows. All the shows that came later were inspired by or copied from this show, whether it is Koffee with Karan or Rendezvous with Simi Garewal. The Anupam Kher Show is a ditto copy of my show. I like all the shows. They all have different styles. Simi is sophisticated, Karan is chatpata,” she said.

Tabassum passed away at the age of 78 in 2022. She started her career as a child artist but was widely known as a chat show host as she continued to do that for a large part of her career.