Nitasha Gauarv shared this photograph of Big B. (courtesy nitashagaurav)
Highlights
- Nitasha Gaurav wrote to Big B after the Coolie accident
- "So we wrote his name and Bombay on the envelope," she wrote in her post
- "I actually got a reply," she added
On Saturday afternoon, celebrity stylist Nitasha Gaurav, a self-confessed fan of Amitabh Bachchan, shared pictures of Jaya Bachchan's reply to a fan mail after theCoolie accident took place. Nitasha Gaurav, who also happens to be Ranveer Singh's stylist, shared these pictures on her Instagram profile and she accompanied it with an extensive note. In her post, Nitasha recalled that as a kid, she decided to write to Mr Bachchan after he was severly injured during the shooting of Coolie. "Fully caught up in the emotion that had seized the nation, we decided to write to him. So off we went to our houses, dug out our snazziest letterheads and wrote him heartfelt messages wishing him a speedy recovery. These were all then thriftily put into one envelope in chronological order, which meant, since I was the youngest, mine was put right in the front, the first in order when the envelope would be opened. We didn't have an address, but hello, this was Amitabh Bachchan, so we wrote his name and Bombay on the envelope, licked it shut and posted it," read an excerpt from her post.
Much to her surprise, Nitasha Gaurav got a reply from Big B's wife and actress Jaya Bachchan."With your kind wishes and prayers, Amitabh is back home. He wishes me to convey to you his personal thanks and hopes to be back on his feet very soon," Mrs Bachchan wrote in the letter.
Nitasha Gaurav added, "I get back from school and my grandmother tells me a letter has come for me. I open it, and lo and behold - it's a letter from Mrs Bachchan. I had actually got a reply. Unbelievable! Soon as it was play time, I grabbed my precious letter and ran to my friends."
Take a look at the aforementioned post here:
Growing up in Delhi, there was a bunch of us who would play together after school. I was the littlest of that group and not taken too seriously. It was also a time when none of us were allowed to watch TV (not that there was much going on on Doordarshan) barring the weekly song-show Chitrahaar. But we all knew Amitabh Bachchan. From Chitrahaar, from movie posters, from hoardings on streets and because, well, it was Amitabh Bachchan. So when he met with his infamous accident on the sets of Coolie, we kids were as concerned as the next adult. Many evenings ended with us discussing his health, having picked up nuggets of information from our parents' conversations. Fully caught up in the emotion that had seized the nation, we decided to write to him. So off we went to our houses, dug out our snazziest letterheads and wrote him heartfelt messages wishing him a speedy recovery. These were all then thriftily put into one envelope in chronological order, which meant, since I was the youngest, mine was put right in the front, the first in order when the envelope would be opened. We didn't have an address, but hello, this was Amitabh Bachchan, so we wrote his name and Bombay on the envelope, licked it shut and posted it. So that was that and it was back to hide-n-seek and tippy-tippy-tap. Cut to a few weeks later, I get back from school and my grandmother tells me a letter has come for me. I open it, and lo and behold - it's a letter from Mrs Bachchan. I had actually got a reply!! Unbelievable! Soon as it was play time, I grabbed my precious letter and ran to my friends. To see their replies, to see what had been sent to them. No one else had got a letter. Maybe theirs were still in the mail. We should wait and see. As it came to be, no one else got a letter. I, the runt of the gang, was the lucky one. And that, ladies and gentlemen, are what these pictures are. Ps: I've scratched out my name, because it's the name my family calls me by and it's not for public consumption. #amitabhbachchan #letters #memories #childhoodmemories #lucky
A post shared by Nitasha Gaurav (@nitashagaurav) on
Amitabh Bachchan suffered a near-fatal injury in 1982 during the making of Manmohan Desai's Coolie. He was initially declared clinically dead but on August 2, 1982, doctors injected adrenaline into Big B's heart to revive him, which worked and the actor fully recovered overt the next few months. The actor, by his own admission, considers August 2 as the day he was "reborn."
After Amitabh Bachchan suffered an injury during an action sequence, which also featured Puneet Issar, he was flown to Mumbai and was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital, where he underwent several surgeries. He overcame the injury after several weeks and resumed shooting for the film in February 1983. To pray for Mr Bachchan's recovery, his wife Jaya Bachchan walked barefoot from the hospital to Siddhivinayak temple (Mumbai) every day. Coolie released in November 1983 and it emerged as a hit film.