Mumbai: Late actor Rishi Kapoor once shared a memorable incident highlighting Amitabh Bachchan’s immense popularity, recalling that nearly one lakh fans gathered on the sets of Coolie when the superstar resumed filming after recovering from a life-threatening accident.
Bachchan suffered a severe abdominal injury while filming an action sequence for the 1983 film, leading to emergency surgeries and months of recovery. His return to the film’s set was met with overwhelming public enthusiasm.
Massive crowd gathered on film set
Speaking in an earlier interview, Rishi Kapoor said the shooting was taking place in Mumbai, where the cast waited in separate tents between scenes. According to him, an estimated one lakh fans arrived at the location hoping to catch a glimpse of Amitabh Bachchan.
Rishi recalled that the crowd grew so large that police personnel found it difficult to manage the situation. He claimed that the film’s producers sought help from local strongmen to assist in controlling the gathering. The late actor described the incident as a reflection of the extraordinary admiration Bachchan commanded during the peak of his career.
Rishi spoke about professional rivalry
In his autobiography Khullam Khulla, Rishi Kapoor also reflected on his relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, admitting that there had once been an unspoken tension between them.
He wrote that the differences gradually faded after they worked together in Amar Akbar Anthony. Rishi also observed that action-oriented films of that era often reserved the most prominent roles for Bachchan, leaving several leading actors, including Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha, with comparatively smaller parts.
Despite those professional challenges, Rishi acknowledged Bachchan’s unparalleled stardom and the extraordinary fan following that made him one of Indian cinema’s biggest icons.