Here are 18 interesting revelations from the conversation.

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45 years of Sholay: 18 interesting facts as revealed by Ramesh Sippy

Ahead of Independence Day, we sat down with the director of Indian cinema's most defining classic.

Team CE

Updated:13th Aug, 2020 at 6:47 PM

To distinguish the film from other dacoit movies, Sippy and art director Ram Yedekar picked Ramanagara, a small city near Bangalore, as their location.

Sippy said he wanted the 'rocky, hard areas' and lush outdoors to dominate the atmosphere.

While not commenting on the romantic progressions on set (between Dharmendra-Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya Bhaduri), Sippy agreed that the time spent together was 'conducive’ to the mood.

Sippy called the film's disastrous first run a 'myth'. He said they had 'fantastic advance bookings', and the emerging star power of Amitabh Bachchan helped the buzz.

Another 'myth', Sippy said, was the plan to reshoot the ending. In fact, the whole team stood by Bachchan's death scene.

“There was a lot of hue and cry about 'why does Amitabh have to die?’' the filmmaker recalled. However, they went with what felt like 'correct storytelling.'

Screenwriters Salim-Javed helped with the film's impeccable casting. Actor Jagdeep, who passed away last month, was recommended by Javed Akhtar for 'Soorma Bhopali'.

The plot of Sholay comes from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Beyond that, they looked at American westerns like Mackenna's Gold, The Magnificent Seven and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Sippy said he wanted to make a western that was still rooted in 'Indian values'. The emergent genre is sometimes regarded as Curry Westerns.

The 'dialogue-baazi’ in Sholay follows in the tradition of classic blockbusters like Mughal-Le-Azam (1960).

The bumpy road at the start of 'Yeh Dosti' was built by the team. The wavy motion of the motorcycle is matched by R. D. Burman's cheery intro.

Sippy conceded that Indian dacoits never rode horses. However, the imagery was already set by films like Ganga Jamuna and (1961) and Mujhe Jeene Do (1963).

The censor board objected to Gabbar's killing at the hands of a policeman. The film was released during the Emergency, when the Indira Gandhi government was under fire for brutality and crackdowns.

The Emergency added another pressure. Since shows needed to wrap before 12 o'clock, distributors wanted to trim two comedy scenes from the film. At a glorious 204 minutes, Sholay retains its funny

The haunting flashback of Thakur's family took 23 days to shoot. The cloudy weather was incorporated to accentuate the gloom.

Sholay was panned by critics and trade papers on its first Saturday. Asked if he remembers a positive review from the time, Sippy remarked, “Not really.”

The theme of widow remarriage was prominently explored in Sippy's debut film, Andaz (1971). The filmmaker denied Jai's death had anything to do with his union with Radha.

On the possibility of a sequel, Sippy demurred. 'It just didn't feel right,' he said.

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