A re-release in the theatres once again cemented the fact that this is, indeed, the stuff of legends-today’s new generation getting introduced to the iconic film and the older generation getting nostalgic all over again. As the film enters its 50th year, director Ramesh Sippy looks back at its eventful journey-from being written off as a failure to emerging as one of Indian cinema’s biggest blockbusters.
Talking to Siddharth Kannan in a podcast, Sippy remembered how the ambitious budget of Sholay was the biggest talking point in the days leading up to its release. Made on an unprecedented budget of ₹3 crore then, the film was perceived as a big financial gamble in 1975. Trade pundits and industry insiders were confident that such profligacy would bring ruin to the industry, and many proclaimed that the makers would never get their money back.
Sippy confided that Sholay had gone from an initial estimate of ₹1 crore to a final threefold increase in cost. Were ₹1 crore at the time to be adjusted for inflation, he explained, it would be the equivalent of close to ₹100 crore today. And when the film began sluggishly, newspapers reported it as a flop, ratifying the conventional wisdom that big-budget films were the surest way to imperil Bollywood’s future.
But, within weeks, the discourse flipped. As days went by and nearly five weeks into the film’s theatrical run, the barometer started climbing. The same critics who trashed it redacted their statements. What was once touted as an industry-threatening gamble had suddenly ballooned into a record-shattering phenomenon, changing perceptions of scale and ambition for all time to come in Indian filmmaking.
Sippy also spoke about the film’s censor troubles, especially its climax. During the Emergency, the censor board had objected to Sanjeev Kumar’s character Thakur Baldev Singh killing Gabbar Singh on the ground that a police officer could not take the law into his hands. On grounds of this, Sippy was compelled to reshoot the climax, sending Gabbar to jail instead of killing him.
“I had no choice,” Sippy said, recalling how censorship rules left filmmakers powerless at the time. Despite his disappointment, the altered ending became the version audiences saw for decades.
Now, with the original ending, Sholay will make it to the cinema halls after fifty years. Renamed as Sholay: The Final Cut, the film will get released on December 12 and finally give the audience a glimpse of what Sippy wanted as its climax. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, and Sanjeev Kumar, Sholay has remained an eternal milestone in filmmaking—evidence that not even the biggest risks can rewrite history.
