Back in 1982, when Amitabh Bachchan had that life-threatening accident on the sets of Coolie, his co-actor Puneet Issar unknowingly ended up delivering the blow that caused it. Fans were furious, and Puneet became a punching bag for their anger. But even while Amitabh was in the hospital, battling for his life, he made sure Puneet wasn’t blamed for what was clearly an accident.In a recent chat with Siddharth Kannan, Puneet looked back at that tough time. He shared how, despite being in such a fragile condition, Amitabh asked to see him. “The greatness of Mr Bachchan, he said he wanted to meet me. When he called for me, I was in tears. I kept thinking, ‘All this happened because of me.’ He said, “I was in tears but he told me, ‘Puneet, it’s not your fault. Accidents happen during action scenes.’” Puneet added that Bachchan then recalled an incident with Vinod Khanna. He said, “Uss avastha mein he told me he was shooting for an action scene with Vinod Khanna and had to hit him with the glass. During the rehearsals, 10 times, it went fine but during the take, the timing went wrong either by him or Khanna and the glass hit Khanna’s chin and he got 7-8 stitches and I was feeling the same thing which you’re feeling today.” But what truly moved Puneet was what Amitabh did next. Even while recovering, he got up, put his arm around Puneet, and walked him all the way to the gate of Breach Candy Hospital where the media was waiting. “He did that so people would know he didn’t hold anything against me,” Puneet recalled. “That’s the kind of man Bachchan saab is.”He also spoke about Jaya Bachchan’s reaction to the entire episode and said that she was very gracious and supportive through it all. He added that Jaya Bachchan was very supportive and gracious through the entire episode. “They are associated with films. They know that it is not anyone’s fault, it just happened.” “Amazing, what a lady,” he said. Puneet added he himself was a huge fan of Bachchan, so he understood people’s reaction to it.
