Sholay is a 1975 Indian action-adventure film, directed by Ramesh Sippy and produced by his father G. P. Sippy. The film follows two criminals, Veeru and Jai, hired by a retired police officer to capture the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, and Sanjeev Kumar. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest Indian films of all time and has a cult following. The film’s dialogues and songs have become iconic in Indian popular culture. It was also the highest-grossing Indian film of 1975.
Amazing Facts About the Movie Sholay
1# The legendary character of Gabbar Singh, played by Amjad Khan, is said to have been based on a real-life dacoit of the same name who was active in Gwalior during the 1950s.
2# The song ‘Yeh dosti’ which is an ode to Jai and Veeru’s bond took 21 days to shoot. Whereas the scene of Jaya’s character Radha lighting a lamp took 20 days to shoot by cinematographer Dwarka Divecha. Talk about perfection!
3# The screenplay of Sholay was originally a 4 line snippet created by writers Salim-Javed. Who would have thought about that?
4# ‘Sholay’ was film of many firsts: the first Hindi film made in 70 mm and the first to be made with stereophonic sound.
5# In the original ending, Thakur kills Gabbar. But the ending was changed and Gabbar was handed over to the police, as the Censor Board of Film Certification objected to it.
6# In spite of Sholay’s status as the greatest blockbuster of Indian cinema, it won just one Filmfare award – for editing!
7# Danny Denzongpa was considered for the role of Gabbar first, but he couldn’t give dates as he was busy shooting for another film in Afghanistan.
8# The film was released on August 15 1975 and many theatres considered pulling it off the screens as the initial reaction it got was bad. But word of mouth made sure that the movie was a blockbuster.
9# Real bullets were used for some of the scenes in the climax. Reportedly Amitabh Bachchan was almost killed by a stray bullet in the film, as Dharmendra’s shot missed him by inches.
10# Gabbar is the most popular character of the film, and even tops the list of best Bollywood villains of the millennium. But, Gabbar appears in just 9 scenes and he makes his first appearance after almost an hour into the film.
11# Jaya Bachchan, who played the role of the Thakur’s widowed daughter-in-law was pregnant with daughter Shweta during the shooting of Sholay and pregnant with son Abhishek during the premier when the film released.
12# Jai and Veeru were named after the film’s scriptwriter Salim Khan’s friends from college — Veerandar Singh Bias and Jai Singh Rao Kalevar.
13# Though released on August 15 1975, Sholay was launched on 2nd October 1973.
14# The song “Yeh Dosti” took 21 days to shoot; the scene where Jaya’s character Radha lights a lamp took 20 days to shoot.
15# The film was the first to enjoy a 25-week run in over 100 cinemas
16# Mac Mohan’s character, Sambha had only one line in the film, but he is still referred to as ‘Sambha’.
17# During the shooting of the film, Dharmendra would pay the light boys to spoil his scenes with Hema Malini so retakes would be required.
18# People saw only the edited version for the first 15 years after release, though in 1990 the original uncut version became available.