40years is a long period for any film, to sustain warmth and love in public memory. We are talking about The film Sholay. It was released on 14th August 1975, thus has completed 40 years. And on this occasion, the director of Sholay, Ramesh Sippy, interacted exclusively, with a select invitees at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai.
Deepa Gahlot, programming head (Theatre and films) NCPA, welcomed the suave director of iconic film and also did steered the discussion in a proper direction. Ramesh Sippy narrated some information on the making and suggested Q & A session, so as to avoid repetitions. “ It took about two years to complete Sholay (which was originally 4 hours long and then edited to 3.20 hours) and it was India’s first 70mm with stereophonic sound film. The processing was done at a London laboratory, under supervision of foreign technicians, but the sad part was that by the time film was ready for release, it was an ‘Emergency’ in India. We originally shot a climax where Thakur kills Gabbar with his nail-studded chappals; but, censor board (now it’s CBFC) objected to it. I was reluctant to change it and fought with them; but, was advised by my own people to reshoot the climax and release the film, instead of keeping it lying in cans at censor board,” Ramesh Sippy was reminiscing.
He further continued, “On premiere day the processed print was not available from the authorities, but Mr V C Shukla, then I & B minister, who was also attending the premiere, arm-twisted some people concerned and the print reached theatre after midnight. The premiere show could not show the finished print. But myself, my close family and friends watched it at 2 am at the same theatre.”
When asked , as to why the film was drubbed drastically by critics, he replied “Actually, those trade-pundits declared it as a major flop and ‘disaster for the film industry’. But, actually all the shows were houseful . ‘The black marketeers were fighting, because they were not getting enough tickets,” he added chuckling. Sholay was made at a cost of 3 cores (now it would have cost around 250-300crore). About selection of Amjad Khan, Mr Sippy quipped, “We had signed Danny Denzongpa for that role, but he got stuck in shoot of another film (Dharmatma) and Amjad a Khan was a last minute replacement, on the recommendation of Salim-Javed. And one can not separate Gabbar Singh from Amjad Khan. They are one.” Incidentally, Amitabh Bachchan wanted to play Gabbar Singh and Dharmendra wanted to play Thakur in Sholay.
Mr Sippy wanted his next film after super hit ‘Seeta aur Geeta’, to be something out of the box and big, on the lines of Magnificent Seven or Mackenna’s Gold . And, he decided to do Sholay with full support of his producer father G P Sippy. Actually, this script first went to Manmohan Deasi and then to another director (Prakash Mehra) and then landed up to Sippys.
Finally, when asked, about possibility of a sequel to Sholay, the answer was an emphatic ‘NO’, but, Ramesh Sippy looked a contended film maker.