Remembering Coolie

On the day when fans are celebrating his ‘second’ birth, we bring you trivia about Coolie, on the sets of which Amitabh Bachchan met with a near-fatal accident...

 

It was a Muslim social with the patent Manmohan Desai lost-and-found formula. Amitabh Bachchan played a Coolie and had the 786 number badge, same as the lucky badge he had in Deewaar (1975).

 

The scenes which show Bachchan plying his trade as a coolie were shot at the Bangalore station as authorities in Mumbai didn’t give Manmohan Desai permission, citing security concerns.

 

Prayag Raj was supposed to be the director and Manmohan Desai just the producer but later Manji added his name to the credits as well, allegedly to safeguard the business interests of the film.

 

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, whose cinematic style was different from Manmohan Desai’s, was the editor of the film.

 

It’s said that two days before the accident, Smita Patil had a premonition about it and even called up Bachchan and asked about his health.

 

When the film got released, in the scene where Amitabh Bachchan was injured, the moment got marked with a freeze frame, and a message was displayed in English, Hindi, and Urdu - "This is the shot in which AMITABH BACHCHAN was seriously injured".

 

The first shot Amitabh did after coming out of the hospital is said to be the completion of the same fight scene where he had got injured.

 

Amitabh Bachchan's character was supposed to die in the climax but director Manmohan Desai changed the ending to a happy one after Bachchan’s brush with death in real life.