Sholay is one of the most iconic films in Bollywood history. Starting Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachan.
Sholay Plot
In the small village of Ramgarh, the retired policeman Thakur Baldev Singh summons a pair of small-time thieves that he had once arrested. Thakur feels that the duo – Veeru and Jai – would be ideal to help him capture Gabbar Singh, a dacoit wanted by the authorities for a ₹50,000[] reward. Thakur tells them to surrender Gabbar to him, alive, for an additional ₹20,000 reward.
The two thieves thwart the dacoits sent by Gabbar to extort the villagers. Soon afterwards, Gabbar and his goons attack Ramgarh during the festival of Holi. In a tough battle, Veeru and Jai are teri maaa''''
ornered. Though Thakur has a gun within his reach, he does not help them. Veeru and Jai fight back and the bandits flee. The two are, however, upset at Thakur's inaction, and consider leaving the village. Thakur explains that Gabbar had killed nearly all of his family members, and had both his arms cut off a few years earlier, which is why he could not use the gun. He had concealed the dismemberment by always wearing a shawl.
Living in Ramgarh, the jovial Veeru and cynical Jai find themselves growing fond of the villagers. Veeru is attracted to Basanti, a feisty, talkative young woman who makes her living by driving a horse-cart. Jai is drawn to Radha, Thakur's reclusive, widowed daughter-in-law, who subtly returns his affections.
Skirmishes between Gabbar's gang and Jai-Veeru finally result in the capture of Veeru and Basanti by the dacoits. Jai attacks the gang, and the three are able to flee Gabbar's hideout with dacoits in pursuit. Fighting from behind a rock, Jai and Veeru nearly run out of ammunition. Veeru, unaware that Jai was wounded in the gunfight, is forced to leave for more ammunition and also to drop Basanti at a safe place. Meanwhile, Jai, who is continuing the gunfight singlehandedly, decides to sacrifice himself by using his last bullet to ignite dynamite sticks on a bridge from close range. Jai dies in Veeru’s arms.
Veeru runs back to Gabbar’s lair in a fury and takes down all of his men. He fights Gabbar but is stopped by Thakur, who reminds of Jai’s promise to capture Gabbar alive. Thakur fights Gabbar with special shoes with have nails in them. In the original ending, Thakur kicks Gabbar onto a nail on one of the two poles that Gabbar had used to chain Thakur when he had cut off his arms, stabbing him in the back and killing him. In the censored (and weaker) ending though, the police come just as Thakur is about to kill Gabbar and reminds him about his morals, and Thakur lets them arrest Gabbar. Whatever the ending, after Jai’s crementation Veeru leaves town on a train with Basanti.
Actors
Dharmendra as Veeru
Amitabh Bachchan as Jai
Hema Malini as Basanti
Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur Baldev Singh
Jaya Bhaduri as Radha, Thakur's daughter-in-law
Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh
Satyen Kappu as Ramlaal, Thakur's Servant
A.K Hangal as Imam Babu
Sachin as Ahmed, Son of Imam Babu
Jagdeep as Soorma Bhopali, a wood trader
Leela Mishra as Mausi, Basanti's maternal aunt
Asrani as the Jailor
Keshto Mukherjee as Hariram, one of the Jailor's spies
Mac Mohan as Sambha, Gabbar's sidekick
Viju Khote as Kaalia, another one of Gabbar's men that gets killed in a game of Russian Roulette
Iftekhar as Inspector Khurana, Radha's dad
SPECIAL APPEARANCE IN SONG MEHBOOBA MEHBOOBA
Helen
Jalal Agha
Casting Choices
The producers considered Danny Denzongpa for the role of bandit chief Gabbar Singh, but he could not accept it as he was committed to act in Feroz Khan's Dharmatma (1975), under production at the same time. Amjad Khan, who was the second choice, prepared himself for the part by reading the book Abhishapta Chambal, which told of the exploits of Chambal dacoits. The book was written by Taroon Kumar Bhaduri, the father of fellow cast member Jaya Bhaduri. Sanjeev Kumar also wanted to play the role of Gabbar Singh, but Salim-Javed "felt he had the audience's sympathy through roles he'd done before; Gabbar had to be completely hateful."
Sippy wanted Shatrughan Sinha to play the part of Jai, but there were already several big stars signed, and Amitabh Bachchan, who was not very popular yet, lobbied hard to get the part for himself. He was cast after Salim-Javed recommended him for Sholay in 1973; Bachchan's performance in their first collaboration, Zanjeer, convinced Salim-Javed he was the right actor for the film. Salim-Javed were impressed with Bachchan's performance in Raaste Kaa Patthar (1972), and at Bachchan's request, Dharmendra had personally put in a word for him. All these factors ensured that the role was Bachchan's.
As cast members had read the script ahead of time, many were interested in playing different parts. Pran was considered for the role of Thakur Baldev Singh, but Sippy thought Sanjeev Kumar was a better choice. Initially, Salim-Javed approached Dilip Kumar to play Thakur's role, but he turned down the offer; Dilip Kumar later said it was one of the few films he regretted turning down. Initially, Dharmendra was also interested to play the role of Thakur. He eventually gave up the role when Sippy informed him that Sanjeev Kumar would play Veeru if that happened, and would be paired with Hema Malini, who Dharmendra was trying to woo. Dharmendra knew that Kumar was also interested in Malini. Hema Malini was reluctant to play the role of a tangewali, more so after Sippy told her that the film belongs to Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan, but she trusted Sippy to give her a meaty role, given that he had played a huge role in essaying her stardom.
During the film's production, four of the leads became romantically involved. Bachchan married Bhaduri four months before filming started. This led to shooting delays when Bhaduri became pregnant with their daughter Shweta. By the time of the film's release, she was pregnant with their son Abhishek. Dharmendra had begun wooing Malini during their earlier film Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), and used the location shoot of Sholay to further pursue her. During their romantic scenes, Dharmendra would often pay the light boys to spoil the shot, thereby ensuring many retakes and allowing him to spend more time with her. The couple married five years after the film's release.
Filming
Much of Sholay was shot in the rocky terrain of Ramanagara, a town near Bangalore, Karnataka. The filmmakers had to build a road from the Bangalore highway to Ramanagara for convenient access to the sets. Art director Ram Yedekar had an entire township built on the site. A prison set was constructed near Rajkamal Studio in Bombay, also outdoors, to match the natural lighting of the on-location sets. One part of Ramanagara was for a time called "Sippy Nagar" as a tribute to the director of the film. As of 2010, a visit to the "Sholay rocks" (where much the film was shot) was still being offered to tourists travelling through Ramanagara.
Filming began on location on 3 October 1973, with a scene featuring Bachchan and Bhaduri. The film had a lavish production for its time (with frequent banquets and parties for the cast), took two and a half years to make, and went over budget. One reason for its high cost was that Sippy re-filmed scenes many times to get his desired effect. "Yeh Dosti", a 5-minute song sequence, took 21 days to shoot, two short scenes in which Radha lights lamps took 20 days to film because of lighting problems, and the shooting of the scene in which Gabbar kills the imam's son lasted 19 days. The train robbery sequence, shot on the Bombay–Poona railway route near Panvel, took more than 7 weeks to complete.[48]
Sholay was the first Indian film to have a stereophonic soundtrack and to use the 70 mm widescreen format. However, since actual 70 mm cameras were expensive at the time, the film was shot on traditional 35 mm film and the 4:3 picture was subsequently converted to a 2.2:1 frame. Regarding the process, Sippy said, "A 70 mm [sic] format takes the awe of the big screen and magnifies it even more to make the picture even bigger, but since I also wanted a spread of sound we used six-track stereophonic sound and combined it with the big screen. It was definitely a differentiator." The use of 70 mm was emphasised by film posters on which the name of the film was stylised to match the CinemaScope logo. Film posters also sought to differentiate the film from those which had come before; one of them added the tagline: "The greatest star cast ever assembled – the greatest story ever told".
Music:
RD Burman composed Sholay's music, and the lyrics were by Anand Bakshi. The music and their videos are below.
Title Music(Sholay)
Title Music Sholay HD 720p
Ye Dosti By Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey
Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge - Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey - Sholay Songs - Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra
Haa Jab Tak Hai Jaan By Lata Mangeshkar
Haan Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Koi Haseena By Kishore Kumar and Hema Malini
Koi Haseena Jab Rooth Jaati - Sholay (1975) - Dharmendra - Hema Malini - Bollywood Romantic Song
Holi Ke Din By Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar
Holi Ke Din Dil Khil Jate Hain - Sholay Song (1975) - Hema Malini - Dharmendra - Holi Song
Mehbooba Mehbooba By RD Burman
Mehbooba Mehbooba - Sholay (1975) - Helen - Amitabh Bachchan - Bollywood Dance Hit Song
Yeh Dosti( Sad version) By Kishore Kumar
Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge (Sad) (HD) - Sholay Song - Amitabh bachchan - Dharmendra - Sad Song
Box Office
Sholay was released on 15 August 1975, Indian Independence Day, in Bombay. Due to lacklustre reviews and a lack of effective visual marketing tools, it saw poor financial returns in its first two weeks. From the third week, however, viewership picked up owing to positive word of mouth.]During the initial slow period, the director and writer considered re-shooting some scenes so that Amitabh Bachchan's character would not die. When business picked up, they abandoned this idea. After being helped additionally by a soundtrack release containing dialogue snippets, Sholay soon became an "overnight sensation". The film was then released in other distribution zones such as Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, and Hyderabad on 11 October 1975. It became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1975, and film ranking website Box Office India has given the film a verdict of "All Time Blockbuster".
Sholay went on to earn a still-standing record of 60 golden jubilees across India, and was the first film in India to celebrate a silver jubilee at over 100 theatres. It was shown continuously at Bombay's Minerva theatre for over five years. Sholay was the Indian film with the longest theatrical run until Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) broke its record of 286 weeks in 2001.
Exact figures are not available on the budget and box office earnings of Sholay, but film trade sources provide estimates of its success. According to Box Office India, Sholay earned about ₹150 million in net income (valued at about US$16,778,000 in 1975) in India during its first run, which was many times its ₹30 million (valued at about US$3,355,000 in 1975) budget. Those earnings were a record that remained unbroken for nineteen years, which is also the longest amount of time that a film has held the record. Its original gross was increased further with re-releases during the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. The film's total gross revenue in India amounted to ₹350 million ($39.15 million). Box Office India estimates the film's total footfalls in India as over 100 million tickets sold. The film was also an overseas success in the Soviet Union, where it was released in 1979. The film sold 48.4 million tickets during its initial run at the Soviet box office, before eventually selling 60 million tickets including re-runs.The film was also released in China, as two parts in 1988.
It was the highest-grossing Indian film ever up until Disco Dancer (1982), and the highest-grossing film in India up until Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). It is often cited that, after adjusting the figures for inflation, Sholay remains one of the highest-grossing films in the history of Indian cinema, although such figures are not known with certainty. Box Office India estimated ₹1.63 billion as Sholay's adjusted domestic net income in 2008, while Times of India estimated over ₹3 billion as the adjusted domestic gross in 2009. Mid Day estimated the film's total adjusted gross as ₹15 billion ($246 million) in 2014. In terms of footfalls, the film is estimated to have sold over 100 million tickets in India, in addition to 60 million tickets in the Soviet Union. In 1985, India Today estimated that the film drew a total audience of 250 million, which is comparable to the number of tickets sold by some of the world's highest-grossing films of all time adjusted for inflation.