The London Film Festival is set to celebrate 50 years of the Bollywood classic Sholay, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, with a special screening of a restored version of the director's cut, complete with the original ending and some deleted scenes.
The British Film Institute's (BFI) annual festival of films from across the globe, which opens next week, has other Indian themes too, including Lucknow-born Ahmed Alauddin Jamal's Hotel London and Anuparna Roy's debut Songs of Forgotten Trees - in the running for the First Feature Competition.
The Ramesh Sippy-directed film that released on August 15, 1975 and gave film lovers characters like Jai-Veeru (Amitabh Bachchan-Dharmendra), Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar), Gabbar (Amjad Khan), Basanti (Hema Malini), Radha (Jaya Bachchan) and many more.
"It's wonderful that the Film Heritage Foundation has restored Sholay and that they have managed to locate and include the original ending as well as some deleted scenes in the restoration," said Bachchan, who described his role of Jai in the film as "permanently etched" in his mind.
"Shooting for the film was an unforgettable experience, but at the time I had no idea that it would be a watershed for Indian cinema. Its dramatic change in fortunes from being declared an unsuccessful venture, to its record-breaking box office run was an emotional rollercoaster for all of us ... .I hope that even 50 years later, the film will capture the imagination of new audiences across the world," he said in a statement.
His co-star Dharmendra, who played his best friend Veeru in the film, often referred to as a "Curry- Western", expressed confidence about its timeless appeal. "Who can forget the dialogues of Salim-Javed and the direction of Ramesh Sippy? So many scenes have gone down in the history of Indian cinema and every character became a star," said Dharmendra.
"Few people know that I was offered the role of Gabbar and Thakur, but I was clear that I wanted to play the role of Veeru as he is so much like me. I had so much fun on the shoot. My favourite scenes were the tanki scene, the scene in the temple, and so many others, but the most powerful scene I feel was the death of Jai, which is still etched in my mind," he added.
Originally released in 1975, the multi-starrer film including Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh, Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur and Hema Malini as Basanti captivated audiences worldwide with what the BFI describes as a "compelling narrative, memorable characters and groundbreaking action sequences".
"It has taken us three years, but we were able to find the original ending and some deleted scenes. It's been a labour of love to resurrect the film, and this is a tribute to the vision and the legacy of my grandfather G.P. Sippy," said Shehzad Sippy, producer of Sippy Films, who initiated the restoration efforts in 2022.
"Sholay was a masterpiece of passion that generations of Indians have loved and seen time and time again. Despite the fact that we could not use the original camera negative and that not a single 70mm print survives, we have left no stone unturned to ensure that this historic film has not only been beautifully restored, but that the restored version will have the original ending and some never-before-seen deleted scenes," said Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of Film Heritage Foundation.
The BFI IMAX in London, the UK's biggest screen, will play host to the special screening of the film on October 19, the concluding day of the 2025 London Film Festival.
