7 interesting facts you didn't know about the film 'Sholay'

'Sholay'. As filmmaker Shekhar Kapur said,"There has never been a more defining film on the Indian screen. Indian film history can be divided into Sholay BC and Sholay AD."

Ramesh Sippy's 'Sholay' is regarded as a cult classic in the history of Bollywood. From the heartwarming friendship between Jai and Veeru to the terrific screen appearance of Gabbar Singh, from Thakur Saab's heartbreaking story to Basanti's joyful presence, from the iconic songs and dialogues to the epic action sequences; 'Sholay' has everything that Indians love to watch on big screen. The film had a stellar starcast such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kapoor etc and it broke all the box office records at that time.

Here are some fascinating facts about the movie.

  1. The role of Gabbar Singh was first offered to Danny Denzongpa, but he turned it down as he was busy with some other film. Also, Ramesh Sippy initially considered veteran actor Pran to play the role of Thakur Baldev Singh, but later Sippy changed his mind and then Sanjeev Kapoor played the role.
  2. Dharmendra was very much interested to play Thakur Baldev Singh. But when Sippy informed him that Sanjeev Kapoor (who was also interested in Hema Malini) would play the role of Veeru, Dharmendra dropped the idea and went on to play Veeru.
  3. Amitabh Bachchan - Jaya Bhaduri and Dharmendra - Hema Malini, two of the most famous couples of Bollywood worked in this film. While Amitabh and Jaya had married 4 months before the shooting of this film started, Dharmendra and Hema married after 5 years of the release of 'Sholay'. In fact, Jaya Bhaduri was pregnant on the set and the shooting even got delayed for that.
  4. The character of Gabbar Singh was based on a real life dacoit with the same name. He was a terrifying and notorious dacoit in Gwalior in the 50's and as reports say, he used to cut off the ears and noses of the policemen.
  5. Dharmendra was so deeply in love with Hema Malini that he used to pay the light boys to create mistakes during the shooting of their romantic scenes, so that it could result in several retakes.
  6. The song "Ye Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge" became a superhit at that time and it's equally popular even after so many years. However, it took 21 days to shoot the whole sequence.
  7. The original version of the film had a different ending where Gabbar is being killed by Thakur. But Censor Board of India thought the scene was extremely violent and asked the makers to reshoot it.
'Sholay' is much more than just a film. Even after so many years after its release, the emotion regarding the film remains equally same.