After a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier this month, one of Hindi cinema’s most iconic films, Sholay (1975), will also be screened with its original ending at the Indian Film Festival of Sydney.
The event will run from October 9 to 11 and the Ramesh Sippy directorial, penned by the legendary screenwriting duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, will be its centrepiece film.
Sholay’s original ending, as envisioned by Sippy, had Thakur killing the film’s villain Gabbar Singh (played by Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan, respectively). Distributors, however, convinced the director to alter its climax to have Thakur surrendering Gabbar to the police. The film will now be screened with its original ending at the Indian Film Festival of Sydney.
Festival Director Mitu Bhowmick Lange expressed her excitement at bringing this screening to Sydney. She said, “Sholay is more than a film—it is woven into the fabric of Indian storytelling, memory and myth. To bring back its original ending, after all these years, is to restore not just a different final scene, but the full vision of its creator. As we mark 50 years of Sholay, we honour the courage of cinema to challenge, to endure, and to be reborn in its truest form.”
In addition to Sholay, the festival will present a curated selection of over 15 films spanning languages, genres and formats, alongside filmmaker conversations, retrospectives and panels celebrating the legacy and future of Indian cinema.
Sholay is considered Hindi cinema’s most acclaimed films. Alongside Amjad Khan and Sanjeev Kumar, the film also starred Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan.
