Right from its characters to dialogues, everything about Sholay is iconic.
Sholay is considered one of the greatest movies ever made. There will be a minimal population of people, especially those who are born after 2000 who have not watched it. Right from its characters to dialogues, everything about Sholay is iconic and is an important part of the pop culture of India. Here we will discuss a few interesting facts related to the movie.
The character of Gabbar Singh was inspired by a real-life dacoit also named Gabbar Singh who lived near Gwalior in the 1950s and used to cut off the noses and ears of policemen. The role was first offered to Danny Denzongpa but he could not give his dates because at the same time he was also working on Feroz Khan’s movie Dharmatma. Writer Salim-Javed recommended the name of Amjad Khan but director Ramesh Sippy was not very impressed by him but eventually, he got the role and the rest is, as they say, is history. The character of Gabbar Singh became so famous that he was offered to be in a biscuit ad because children loved the character of Gabbar Singh.
Sholay took almost three years to be made because director Ramesh Sippy directed each scene with perfection. It took 21 days to shoot a short scene where Jai ( Amitabh Bachchan) is playing the mouth organ and Radha (Jaya Bachchan) is putting off the lanterns. The scene was supposed to be shot in the early morning but because of the reason that Sippy was not getting the perfect lighting needed for the scene and it took 21 days to shoot that single scene.
You will be surprised to know that Sholay got a very small opening and almost all critics thrashed the movie calling it a cheap copy of American western movies. The cast and the crew were down and they even contemplated changing the scene of Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) dying and make him alive, but slowly the collection of the movie increased because of the positive word of mouth. It was the first movie to have a 25-week run in over 100 cinemas.
