When My Father Sat On A ‘Thook-Daan’ While Watching Amitabh Bachchan’s Satte Pe Satta!

I have grown up watching Amitabh Bachchan just as my father; he didn’t just admire him, but he used to worship him. From imitating his idol to delivering dialogues while watching his movies, I can still see the similar excitement in my father’s eyes.

My father was born in mid 60’s so he grew up watching the Shahenshah of Bollywood and was a self-celebrated Bachchan fan. While growing up he used to copy his style, his fashion, his antics and nothing but everything. My grandmother still narrates me how much my father used to love Amitabh Bachchan and used to copy his style. He used to wait for the release of any Bachchan movie, and go with all his cousins & friends to watch it. This routine is still very much in progress. Earlier his cousins were part of his plan but now it’s either me or my mother.

When Yaarana released in 1981, my father urged my grandfather to get that in-trend ‘Lightning Jacket’ which Amitabh Bachchan wore in the song Saara Zamaana. So my grandfather got that jacket stitched from a local tailor and he fixed those LED lights in the attire with a battery so that it could be portable while wearing. Even Amitabh Bachchan’s jacket had a wire attached to the lights, but my father was a level-up.

There are so many instances of my father with Amitabh Bachchan which are still fresh in my mind. It was in 1982 when Satte Pe Satta released, and as usual my father wanted to see it first day first show. My father went to watch it in Golcha cinema hall in Darya Ganj, Delhi with all of his cousins. Now a days, there are so many theatres that too with multiple screens to watch a movie but back then, there used to be single screen theaters which used to be jam packed and if it’s an Amitabh Bachchan film then one can’t expect to get the tickets easily.

My father with all his cousins got the tickets with some ‘jugaad’ and when he entered the theatre it was jam-packed, and there was not even a single chair which was vacant. In those days audience even used to sit on the stairs to watch the movies. So my father’s cousins settled at whatever places they saw vacant but baapu wanted to watch his idol from the most convenient place possible. He then saw a place vacant which was a bit above from the floor level. During the interval, when the lights turned on and my father’s cousin saw him they all bursted out in laugh as he was sitting throughout the first half on a ‘spit-box’ (thook-daan or peek-daan) and my father also didn’t even know about it. This incident is among one of the best memories of my father and our family and we still laugh about it whenever we discuss about his love for Bollywood & Amitabh Bachchan.