When Amitabh Bachchan recalled his near-fatal Coolie accident: ‘It was a very frightening time…’

According to reports, the actor was declared dead for a few minutes, before undergoing several surgeries while on ventilator. The superstar was critical for a couple of months, and when on August 2, the unconscious Bachchan finally moved, a nation who had been praying hard for his recovery, erupted in joy. That is how the date came to be celebrated as Big B’s ‘second birthday’.

In a previous interview with Stardust, Amitabh Bachchan had recounted in parts what had happened and what he felt post the accident. “See, I never knew that I was going to die. I knew that there was something very wrong with me but I never knew that I was going to die. And the entire period when I was seemingly gone, when I was struggling for life, I was in a state of coma. I was unconscious. That was a difficult period for my family. It was easy for me because I was oblivious. The difficult period for me started after I got okay. When you’re told what you’ve been through. And it’s not enough that you’ve been told.”

The actor said his entire body had been ‘finished from within’. “The worst phase is when you discover that what they have told you is, in fact, true. Your entire body is finished from within. You’re in full bloom, you’re healthy and you’re full of life and gusto. And to suddenly find that the body is not there. You can’t move your fingers. Your legs can’t support you. And your whole system has gone through a battering. But you know that it was there. It was just there the other day. How come it’s not working? It was a very frightening time,” he said.

Coolie eventually released in 1983 and became a blockbuster hit.