When Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan were ‘almost drowned’ as their kayak overturned in rapids

Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan went kayaking in Nepal during the making of Mahaan but suffered an accident and were saved in the nick of time by their photographer.

Amitabh Bachchan has shared several sweet and sour memories of shooting for the 1983 film Mahaan in Nepal to mark the 37th anniversary of its release on Wednesday. The actor has opened up about an accident that took place during his and son Abhishek Bachchan’s kayaking adventure in between shots.

Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan on a kayak.

Amitabh shared a picture with a little Abhishek who had visited the actor in Nepal at the time. The black-and-white picture shows the two wearing life jackets while sitting on a kayak. Abhishek looks excited as he keeps close to his father.

Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan kayaking in Nepal.

The father-son duo went kayaking in the rapids but “almost drowned there .. got stuck in the kayak as it turned over and could not turn it around in the rapid waters”. He wrote on his blog, “in that little break in the shoot to go kayaking with the little fellow .. Abhishek .. the rapids in Nepal are famous the world over and is a very popular sport among the tourists that come from all over the world.” Sharing how their photographer came to their rescue, he said, “Alam, who travelled with me, realised the situation jumped in and turned the boat over and saved me.”

The 77-year-old also regrets throwing away those popular rimmed glasses he wore in the film. Talking about getting rid of them, he said, “it remained with me for some time and then in the spring cleaning of the home got rid of them .. a whole bunch of them just threw them away .. Abhishek almost killed me for doing that because they became the in thing in todays times.”

Giving a piece of advice in that regard, he added, “if you’ve been around long enough, or are planning to be around long enough .. NEVER throw out the old stuff .. lessons learnt.”

Amitabh also spoke about the opportunity of playing three roles in the film: father Amit and sons Guru and Shankar. The film also starred Waheeda Rehman, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Ashok Kumar, Aruna Irani, Amjad Khan and Kader Khan in prominent roles.

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