Interesting Amitabh Bachchan 1984 interview where he talks about his Sabarimala, Swami Ayyappa pilgrimage

[The actual interview starts after around 4 mins into the video.] Amitabh Bachchan 1984 Interview (in Hindi), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLRfoO3gYR0 .

Around 6 mins. 28 secs. into the video, the discussion turns to Amitabh Bachchan's doing Sabarimala pilgrimage. I was not aware of him having done this pilgrimage and so was pleasantly surprised but could not really believe it at first viewing of the video. I thought maybe I had not understood it correctly!

Amitabh explains the 41 day fast that has to be done for Sabarimala, Swami Ayyappa pilgramage to the reporter (perhaps from Canada). The reporter asks Amitabh in a very surprised tone whether he conformed to all the requirements that he explained for the 41 day fast and Amitabh says "Jee ha" - Yes (madam)!

I tried to dig up some more info. about this Sabarimala pilgrimage that he did. 

This tweet photo (black-and-white pic) shows Amitabh with the Irumudikkettu on his head! - https://twitter.com/VikasbansalEF/status/886259028770213890/photo/1 , 15th July 2017.

I have reproduced above pic below. Thanks to Twitter user VikasbansalEF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala, describes "Irumudi" (or Irumudikkettu) as "(a two compartment bag made of handwoven cotton cloth used to carry the offerings for Sabarimala Temple carried on their heads)"

The tweet text accompanying the pic is in Hindi (in Latin/English script): "Sir ji @SrBachchan Ek photo Mujhe Bhi mili aap baateyn iske baare main" where he tags Amitabh Bachchan and asks him to tell the background about the pic.

Responding to above tweet, Amitabh confirms it being his pilgrimage pic in this tweet: https://twitter.com/srbachchan/status/886259598054772736 , 15th July 2017. The text is "going a pilgrimage to the Aiyappa Temple .. Kerala-AP-Karnataka .. soon after recovery from Coolie accident .." Note that he had a major accident in 1983 while shooting for the movie Coolie. The section 'Coolie injury' in his wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitabh_Bachchan#Superstardom_(1975%E2%80%931988), gives info. on it.

This Hindu article, Man with the Midas touch, https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/man-with-the-midas-touch/article4364992.ece, 31st Jan. 2013 gives interesting background about Amitabh's getting associated with Swami Ayyappa devotees' group. The article is a tribute to the late S. Raamanathan, a director-producer.

The article claims that Raamanathan "gave a struggling Amitabh Bachchan his first big break in Hindi films with ‘Bombay to Goa.’". It also covers the shock and affectionate words of Amitabh Bachchan (on his blog) on knowing about Raamanathan's passing away.

The article says that Raamanthan "had been visiting Sabarimala for over 37 years and encouraged personalities including Lawrence D. Souza, Prayag Raj (film directors), Aadesh Srivatsav (music director) and Bachchan to do the same."

It states: "Amitabh Bachchan used to attend the Ayyappa poojas performed at SR’s house with his family. " [SR refers to Raamanthan.]

I think that explains a lot about Amitabh Bachchan's association with Lord Ayyappa's devotees and how he even undertook a pilgrimage to Sabarimala after recovering from Coolie accident. In the video interview above, Amitabh clearly says that he did not undertake the pilgrimage with a specific 'mannat' (prayer to God to fulfill a specific wish) in mind.

Perhaps his Ayyappa devotee colleague(s) (especially Raamanathan) may have prayed to Lord Ayyappa for Amitabh's recovery and on Amitabh's recovery, asked him to join them on their pilgrimage partly as a way to thank Lord Ayyappa for granting their prayers about Amitabh's recovery.

I have great respect for Lord Ayyappa devotee community. I should add that while I personally have not visited Sabarimala, my late elder brother, Vishwanath S. Iyer, was a staunch Lord Ayyappa devotee in the later years of his life. He used to play a key role in organizing Ayyappa poojas in Dombivli and I have attended and prayed at many of these Ayyappa poojas he helped to organize, over the years. He also performed Sabarimala pilgrimage (including the 41 day fast) many times.

I wonder whether he knew about Amitabh Bachchan having done this Sabarimala pilgrimage in 1983/84. Perhaps he would have known as many in the Ayyappa devotee community in Dombivli & Mumbai with whom he would regularly interact, would have known about it.

[I thank thehindu.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]