Amitabh visits ailing filmmaker who gave him his first hit

Mumbai, May 1 (IANS) Taking time out from his choc-a-block schedule, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan visited veteran filmmaker Prakash Mehra, who gave him his first big hit 'Zanjeer', at a hospital here.

Amitabh went to the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Thursday to see Mehra, who is recuperating from his ailment. Mehra's other big hit with Amitabh was 'Namak Halal'.

'Prakash Mehra, the director of some of my most significant and most successful films lies in the ICU. When I went to him, he had difficulty in recognising me. It is most depressing to see my contemporaries in this way.

'This wizard of a director, now lying inane and without response, eyes open but closed for all purposes, ventilator breathing for him - just so unimaginable. The doctors say he is improving. I hope he recovers well and remains healthy,' Amitabh posted about his visit on his blog www.bigb.bigadda.com.

Karan Johar's mother Hiroo Johar too is hospitalised there and the Big B visited her as well.

'Hiroo Johar has had a surgery and was recovering well. Her back has been troubling her for long and needed surgery. That went off well and she now recuperates in her room. She is her optimistic cheerful self and we spent time with her and Karan,' wrote Amitabh.

After that he went to see Dimple Kapadia's sister Simple in the same hospital. Amitabh says that his meeting with Simple left him feeling emotional as she had told him an old tale despite her condition.

At the same hospital, the sexagenarian also went to see singer-composer Adnan Sami's ailing father Arshad Sami Khan, a former Pakistani diplomat, who is suffering from cancer of the pancreas.

'Adnan Sami's father is critical too. I visited him. Adnan not being there, I wished a speedy recovery and came away,' said Amitabh.

As for his own experience of being at the ICU, Amitabh says they are 'disturbing locations for me and I would rather not be there.'