PAST IMPERFECT: The illness brought back memories of Bachchan's injury on the sets of Coolie.

It was like memories of another day. Lilavati Hospital in suburban Mumbai resembled a closely guarded fortress last week as the media kept a vigil on the nation's tallest superstar. As celebrity guests streamed in to visit Amitabh Bachchan, family and friends remained tightlipped about his ailment-which began as a stomach pain in Delhi and developed into a condition serious enough to merit a five-and-a-half-hour-long surgery of the small intestine.

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TIME TO SLOW DOWN: Bachchan being hospitalized

For those who had lived through the public frenzy of 1982, when Bachchan battled death after an injury on the sets of Manmohan Desai's Coolie, it was surreal. Then, three days of untreated intestinal leakage had resulted in severe internal infection and caused neuromuscular dysfunction which Bachchan still lives with. This time, it all began when Bachchan was taken ill over the weekend in Lucknow at a function to commemorate his father's birth anniversary. Rushed to Delhi by air, he was then flown to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital. Over the next few days, TV crews would be stationed there permanently, giving hourly updates to channels with medical bulletins that kept changing the nature of the ailment. Initially believed to be colitis, Bachchan's condition appeared to be diverticulitis, where weakness in the wall of the small intestine results in the formation of numerous small pouches, which can get inflamed or infected. During investigation, it was found that one of these pouches had been perforated. According to Dr Avinash Supe, professor and head of gastro-intestinal surgery at KEM Hospital in Mumbai, it is a "major surgery and he should take at least two-three weeks of rest".

As priests from Mahakaleshwar temple, Ujjain, and Siddhivinayak temple, Mumbai,

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offered pujas for him, the comment was echoed by all his friends concerned about his 18-hour work day. Bachchan was coming off a busy schedule which involved a three-week jig in New York for Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna where he plays, in Johar's words, a "bed-breaker" who dates a different young woman every day. After a short break, he was getting ready for a week-long shoot of Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 (KBC 2), where he regularly shoots two episodes a day. Even after that, he squeezed in three days for the promotions of his son's buddy Apurva Lakhia's Ek Ajnabee.

After Bachchan's ABCL went bust in 1997, he has put in extra effort to pay back "each penny" of the Rs 90 crore he owed to creditors. Since his resurgence with KBC in 2000, he has become one of the busiest stars in the film industry-again. This year alone, he has acted in seven films so far, which have grossed over Rs 200 crore. Though he has shrugged off his role in many of the films as that of a character artist, with performances such as the angry teacher in Black and the ageing patriarch in Sarkar it has become difficult to sustain that modest comment. His KBC 2 has been a success and is speculated to have earned Star TV around Rs 200 crore. And his endorsements have been so successful that he adds new ones every other day.

Having been ordered to rest for at least a month now, his schedule, which is accounted to the minute, will now have to be reworked. But clearly it is something the entertainment industry is only too willing to do. As Sameer Nair, coo of Star TV, put it: "Right now the primary concern is his health. He is a rock star but he needs to take some rest."

Inside the hospital, as the family with close friends, industrialist Anil Ambani and politician Amar Singh, greeted visitors, the atmosphere was resolute but cheerful. The Bachchans, after all, are no strangers to crises.

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