Sharat Saxena drops health update after 6-hour lumbar spine surgery at 76: ‘Can’t keep a good man down’ |

At 76, Sharat Saxena is proving that a major surgery is not enough to dampen his spirits. The veteran actor, known for his enduring fitness and tough-guy image on screen, recently underwent a six-hour lumbar spine surgery and shared a glimpse of his recovery with fans. And true to form, his first thought after the procedure seemed to be getting back to the gym.Taking to Instagram on Friday, Sharat shared a montage chronicling his journey from the hospital to his home. The first picture shows him lying on a hospital bed and looking at the camera, with the words “Surgery done” written on the image. The pictures that follow show the actor leaving the hospital with his family and celebrating the successful procedure with them.In one particularly cheerful picture, Sharat is seen holding a glass of drink as he jokes about returning to his fitness routine. “Party today, gym tomorrow,” he wrote.The actor also expressed relief at being able to put some of the restrictions caused by his spine condition behind him. “No more walking with the stick,” he wrote, while also joking about no longer having to survive on soup.Sharing the montage, Sharat wrote, “6 hour spine surgery- done CAN’T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN.”Before the surgery, the actor had shared a picture of himself undergoing an MRI scan. “Standing mri before lumbar spine surgery at Bombay Hospital,” he had captioned the post.Sharat made his acting debut with Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Benaam’ and has since built a career spanning more than five decades. Having appeared in over 250 films across Hindi and other Indian languages, he is known for performances in films such as ‘Mr. India’, ‘Tridev’, ‘Ghayal’, ‘Khiladi’, ‘Ghulam’, ‘Gupt: The Hidden Truth’, ‘Phir Hera Pheri’, ‘Baghban’, ‘Fanaa’, ‘Krrish’ and ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan‘.Interestingly, despite his commitment to fitness, Sharat’s muscular build often dictated the kind of roles that came his way during the early years of his career. He was frequently cast in action and negative roles and, as he once put it, became something of a punching bag for Hindi film heroes.Speaking to Rediff in an old interview, he recalled, “I came to Bombay. I started going to various offices, trying to find work. Slowly and surely, I got small roles in films. Because I was a muscular person, I used to get work as an action character. I used to do a lot of fights. I used to get beaten up by the heroes. In Kaala Patthar, I was in the introduction sequence for three heroes (Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha). Every hero would come, beat me up, establish himself as the hero and carry on with the film. I was a punching bag of the film, and that was the story of my life for the first 35 years of my career.”