Coolie, directed by Manmohan Desai, is an action-packed drama starring Amitabh Bachchan as Iqbal, a railway porter or 'coolie' who fights against social injustice while taking care of his blind mother. The film follows Iqbal's struggle against powerful villains exploiting the poor, and his efforts to unite fellow workers in their collective fight for dignity and rights. The film's production coincided with one of India's most significant labor movements: the Great Bombay Textile Mill strike of 1982, led by Datta Samant. This massive workers' strike, involving over 250,000 textile workers, stretched on for nearly two years, affecting the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands. Coolie was shaped by this tense sociopolitical environment, with its narrative resonating with the struggles of India's working class. The themes of solidarity and resistance are symbolised in several ways throughout the film, none more iconic than the fight scene where Bachchan's character finds a sickle and hammer-symbols associated with communism worldwide-and holds them in the air. The image of Bachchan in his red coolie uniform, brandishing the sickle and hammer, became emblematic of the film's subtextual message of worker empowerment and revolt against capitalist oppression, as can be seen in some of the posters of the film.