Diwali is a festival of lights, sweets, and firecrackers, but in 1984, it brought a painful memory to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. During the shooting of a 1984 film, he severely burned his hand while bursting a firecracker. Despite this, he completed the shooting and kept the audience from knowing which hand was burned. This pain later became his style statement.

After the huge success of ‘Zanjeer,’ Amitabh Bachchan never looked back, delivering one superhit film after another at the box office. This was a time when Prakash Mehra and Amitabh Bachchan were a superhit pairing. While working together on the film ‘Sharaabi,’ an accident occurred.

In this film, released 41 years ago, Amitabh Bachchan played the role of an alcoholic named Vicky. The film was a complex story of a father-son relationship. Amitabh Bachchan’s style in ‘Sharaabi‘ became very popular, where he acts with his hand in his pants pocket.

When filming resumed, Bachchan’s hand was still being treated and was clearly visible. Director Prakash Mehra suggested that he hide his hand in his pants pocket, which Big B followed.

This was not in the film’s script. Amitabh Bachchan’s hand was burned by a firecracker during Diwali. He completed the film’s shooting with the burned hand, which later became a popular style.

Amitabh Bachchan revealed in his blog that it took him two months to regain movement of his thumb and index finger. He once said that during the shooting of ‘Sharaabi,’ a Diwali firecracker injured his hand, but he continued shooting.

The film’s director, Prakash Mehra, also advised him, “You’re playing a spoiled son and a drunkard in this film, so keep one hand in your pocket.” Interestingly, this “hand-in-pocket” style, which began out of compulsion, became so popular after the film’s release that it became a style statement for Amitabh Bachchan. Audiences saw it as a stylish take on his alcoholic character, Vicky Kapoor, and loved it.

Speaking of the rest of the film’s star cast, apart from Amitabh Bachchan, excellent actors like Jaya Prada, Pran, and Om Prakash also garnered accolades.

Singer Kishore Kumar received four nominations for Best Playback Singer at the 1984 Filmfare Awards for ‘Sharaabi.’ This was the first, and arguably the last time a single singer received all the nominations in a single category. Songs like ‘De De Pyar De‘ and ‘Jahaan Chaar Yaar Mil Jaye‘ remain popular even today.

Filmmaker Prakash Mehra is credited with making Amitabh Bachchan a superstar. In addition to ‘Zanjeer‘ and ‘Sharaabi,’ the two worked together in successful films like ‘Hera Pheri,’ ‘Khoon Pasina,’ ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar,’ ‘Lawaris,’ and ‘Namak Halal.’

The film received nine nominations at the Filmfare Awards that year. However, the Best Actor award went to Anupam Kher for ‘Saaransh.‘