Actor-filmmaker Tinnu Anand has shared how megastar Amitabh Bachchan faced a life-threatening moment after being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes severe muscular weakness. This occurred during the filming of Coolie, where Bachchan also sustained a critical injury during a fight scene with Puneet Issar.
Anand had planned to start shooting Shahenshah in Ooty, with everything set for a 10-day schedule. However, just a day before filming, he received a call from Bachchan, asking him to come to Mysore, where Coolie was being filmed. “I was told by the Manmohan Desai unit that he has gotten injured and was taken to Bengaluru for checkup. ‘He has asked you to come to Bengaluru,’ they told me, so I went there,” Anand shared.
Once there, Amitabh broke the news about his condition. “‘Please sit down, I have a bad news for you. I have been diagnosed with a nerve illness. During the shoot when I was taking a sip of the water, it got stuck in my throat, because the message to my brain didn’t go that I had to swallow it.’ He then said, ‘I nearly died suffocating on it,’” Anand recalled in an interview with Radio Nasha.
Bachchan was advised to return to Mumbai for further evaluation and was told to take “complete rest.” Anand added, “He told me that the doctors have warned him that he may never be able to work again. I just collapsed listening to this!” A few days later, a report by Mr. Khalid Mohammed mentioned that Bachchan had announced his retirement from acting. Consequently, Shahenshah was shelved.
However, after some time and recovery, things fell into place, and Shahenshah was eventually filmed with Bachchan and Meenakshi Sheshadri. The film, with a story by Jaya Bachchan, went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of 1988.
The film follows Vijay Srivastava, a seemingly corrupt and cowardly police officer by day, who transforms into a vigilante known as Shahenshah by night to fight crime and bring justice to the city. The vigilante persona, complete with a steel arm and iconic black cape, strikes fear into the hearts of criminals, as he takes the law into his own hands.
The story revolves around Vijay’s personal vendetta against the corrupt businessman J.K. Verma (Amrish Puri), who was responsible for the wrongful conviction and eventual suicide of Vijay’s father, an honest police officer. As Shahenshah, Vijay begins to dismantle Verma’s criminal empire piece by piece, while keeping his identity hidden from both the law and his family.
The film is a mix of action, drama, and social justice, where Vijay navigates the blurred lines between law enforcement and vigilante justice. It culminates in a final confrontation between Shahenshah and Verma, where truth and justice prevail. Shahenshah became iconic for Amitabh Bachchan’s dual performance and its famous catchphrase, “Rishte mein toh hum tumhare baap lagte hain, naam hai Shahenshah!” (In relation, I seem like your father, the name is Shahenshah).
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