In 1993, the late kung-fu icon Bruce Lee's 28-year-old son Brandon was killed in a mishap that occurred on the sets of his film, The Crow, in Wilmington, N.C. A blank bullet generally used only to simulate gunfire while filming, propelled a bullet that was lodged in the rifle earlier, killing the actor. A similar incident, fortunately not fatal, took place on Monday night on the sets of Sanjay Gupta's Shootout At Wadala at Haffkine Institute. John Abraham, who plays gangster Manya Surve in the Balaji Motion Pictures film, escaped death while filming a gunfire scene.
The makers were busy shooting the climax. The gun-effects team hired for the film goofed up, and Anil Kapoor, who plays cop Isaque Bagwan, shot a blank bullet (minus metallic lead) that was meant to be shot from a minimum distance of 15 feet, from a distance of only 1.5 feet.
The shot burst into flames as planned, but due to the close range, hit Abraham with higher intensity (almost ten times) than it was supposed to.
However, thanks to Kapoor's bad aim, John did not get hit in the middle of his neck. The bullet simply grazed the left side of his neck. But due to the momentum, John, who was crouching for the scene, fell to his right side.
Needless to say, the unit was shocked. "There was utter panic all around. Everybody realised what could have happened if Kapoor timed his shot well. Gupta screamed and demanded an explanation for the miscalculation of distance," a source from the sets told TOI.
When contacted, Kapoor confirmed the incident and added, "John was very fortunate and sporting." As for Abraham, he simply said, "It would have been all over for me on September 23. I still can't believe that I am alive."
A doctor was summoned on the sets to attend to Abraham, whose ears were "ringing for 24 hours" after the accident.
"My neck was burnt and the wound is still there on my collar bone. It hurts. But I am carrying out my day-to-day work pretending as if nothing has happened. I shall definitely take a long time to forget what happened at Haffkine Institute. If you ask me whose fault it is, I would only say that everything happened in the heat of the moment. Nobody expected the intensity and the velocity of those blank bullets. I think I should have checked Mr Kapoor's gun. I always check and double-check my guns if I am doing any firing scene. I am agnostic but I now feel that there is God up there," Abraham added.
The director was speechless. "I don't know what to say. When I think of it, it sends shivers down my spine," he told us.
We learnt that the scene, which almost killed John has been retained. A retake was not taken. There were no retakes for that one.
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