More than four decades after Amitabh Bachchan’s near-fatal injury on the Bengaluru set of Coolie, the film’s fight director has offered a detailed account of what happened once the cameras stopped. Pappu Verma, who served as action director on Manmohan Desai’s film, spoke to YouTuber Rajeev Chaudhari about the panic, the cover story and the safety changes that followed.
Two accidents, not one
Verma said the day’s first mishap involved stuntman Shakti. A punch during a fight scene ruptured Shakti’s eye, and the injury required two stitches.
The second incident happened later that evening, when the unit began a solo fight between Bachchan and Puneet Issar, who was making his acting debut. According to Verma, Issar’s direct punch landed on Bachchan’s arteries, leaving the superstar with the injury that became one of Hindi cinema’s most widely remembered on-set accidents.
Why the unit blamed a table
The crew’s immediate problem was not just medical but professional. The next shot required Bachchan to go over a table, so the team used that movement to explain the injury rather than disclose the punch. Verma recalled the reasoning: “Puneet ke career ka bhi sawaal tha.”
The anxiety, as he described it, was that Issar could be blamed for injuring one of the biggest stars in the country during his very first film. “Pehli film mein isne itne bade superstar ko maar diya,” Verma said. Desai instructed the unit not to discuss what had actually happened, though details eventually emerged in media reports.
The rule that followed recovery
Bachchan’s recovery was long. Verma said the actor spent six months in hospital and that filming resumed only after he returned and was well. When production restarted, Desai made one instruction categorical:
- First mishap: stuntman Shakti took a punch and needed two stitches for an eye injury.
- Second mishap: Issar’s punch hit Bachchan during a solo fight, with serious consequences.
- New safety line: Desai ordered that there would be no punches to the stomach at all.
- Future filming: action sequences continued on a set constructed at Chandiwali.
Verma’s recollection of Desai’s order is blunt: “bhai, pet pe toh punch hoga hi nahi.”
Why it still matters
For Hindi cinema followers, Verma’s account adds texture to a defining moment in Bachchan’s life and career. It also shows how a production’s crises can be shaped by career anxieties, not only by physical risk. Coolie went on to become one of Bachchan’s best-known films, and the accident remains part of its legend.
Source: The Times of India
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