Amitabh Bachchan suffers from strained neck

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan was spotted wearing a neck brace, and he says it's due to a strained neck caused by stunts he did in his younger days.

The 74-year-old thespian was photographed wearing a neck brace while he attended his daughter-in-law and actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's father's funeral here on March 18.

"Many have, yes, seen the picture with the neck brace and have expressed either exclamation or remedy, or surprise... It's factual and it's on my neck, because the neck is strained. These are recurrences of old action and stunt injuries right from the time of 'Don' and several other films that came after that have involved my physical movements for action deeds going horribly wrong," Amitabh wrote on his blog.

"The cervical has undergone so many damage inflicting stunts that several vertebrae are damaged, out of position, infected with trauma, and several other complicated medical terminology which I just cannot understand... Resulting in any act or movement or subjection to an awkward resting position, those vertebrae move about again out of position, making it impossible for me to sit stand sleep rest in any position whatsoever," he added.

Amitabh said there were no safety devices during their times.

"It was raw it was real and it was injury-centric. We jumped from heights without protection, without soft landing gear, without harnesses that most actors deploy now and without face replacement," he added.

The "Piku" star calls face replacement a "wonderful technological invention".

"Where a double or a duplicate can make the 1960s jump and his face is replaced by the main artist's... So, on screen it looks as if the hero did it... Difficult bike sequences, which involve dangerous riding skills are never with the leading man... They are done with duplicates and the face replaced with that of the leading man," he added.

Amitabh says special effects and VFX has made an actor's life and work easy.

"VFX is expensive stuff. Replication of every action of the actor can be pre captured and through replacement made to look real... You need never go to Mt Everest, but you could be put there on top," he said.

--IANS

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