Puneet Issar is remembered for ‘almost killing’ Amitabh Bachchan during ‘Coolie’. He had punched Bachchan in the stomach which ruptured his intestine but it was just an accident which took place just as sometimes the timing in action differs. In a recent interview, he recalled the greatness of Big B who called to meet him after the incident and said that it wasn’t his fault. He also shared how he lost out on a lot of work after this accident took place and nobody was ready to cast him as a villain.He said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, “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.”Interestingly, Puneet worked with Abhishek Bachchan in his debut film ‘Refugee’. When asked about how Abhishek is as a person, Puneet said, “Abhishek Bachchan bohot hi shahista, ek toh..Kamaal parivaar se aata hai. Bohot hi farmabardar joh kehta hai, courteous, bohot hi courteous hai. Hamare mein common baat thi, woh hanuman bhakt hai aur main bhi hanuman bhakt hu. He knew, that maine ‘Coolie’ ki thi. Hamare JP Dutta director joh the, unse koi aadmi role nahi puch sakta tha. I had done Hathiyar with him, Border with him. I shot for 15-20 days which was long, but when people edit the film, it was cut. The role was just left to 1-2 scenes.When asked if Abhishek ever recalled Bachchan’s accident with him, Puneet said, “Never. Infact, Abhishek Bachchan and my younger brother Prashant Issar who we call Sippi, are very good friends.”Abhishek recently completed 25 years since the release of his first film ‘Refugee’.
