When Amitabh Bachchan was slapped by a monkey

New Delhi: Man vs monkey. Monkey wins.

Sounds like a film plot? This isn't Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. It's much closer home - Haridwar, in fact, was the setting for a superstar-simian face-off and the superstar in question was no less a person than Amitabh Bachchan.

Amitabh Bachchan's latest Facebook memoir dates back to the late '70s when Big B was shooting Gangi Ki Saugandh, co-starring Rekha, Pran and Amjad Khan, in Haridwar. The shoot involved skin-of-teeth horseback heroics and an unscripted close encounter with a gang of hardcase langoors.

This is Mr Bachchan's retelling:
A picture that takes me back to the days of shooting for Ganga ki Saugandh. This is on the road as we drive to Laxman Jhula, near Haridwar, over the sacred Ganges, where we were shooting a sequence. For the first time and perhaps the last, I was asked to gallop on horseback on the bridge itself. It is a very delicately built construction at a height of approx a 100 feet above the river, of thin ropes and some iron and just about enough width to take single filed devotees on foot. Sultan Ahmed, the director wanted reality, and when the local army group that was with us assisting in the shoot, declined to allow any from their group to ride on, considering it to be too dangerous, he asked me to do it live .. which ... yes I did ..! They were wild days then and such heroics were the order of the day !

But back to the picture. This a moment while driving back to our rest house in Haridwar. On the road are these monkeys called 'langoors' ... they have almost white faces and grey skin texture, very long tails which possess the strength of an elephant, loitering about in search of food. When a car stops, they actually come alongside and virtually beg for food to be given to them. I got off the car and fed several of them with gram and bananas, as can be seen by one of them reaching out.

An almost domestic like script followed soon after this photograph. The other two or three 'langoors' by the side, noticing that my attention was dedicated to this one fellow, angered, jumped up and slapped me on my face .. human like .. demanding that attention be paid to him also ...

I cannot remember if it was a female ... !!! ha ha ah ..
That person by my side is my make up man Deepak Sawant .. he has served me for over 35 years ! And is still with me !!