There is another very interesting trivia about Sholay. After it was released, the response from the audience was very low and people were not coming to the theatres to watch the movie as a result of which the collections were abysmal. Obviously, it got Ramesh Sippy, the producer and all other lead actors and writers of the movie very worried. So, they recalled all the Sholay prints from all over India and had a meeting to figure out what was wrong with the movie and how best could they improve on it so that people come to watch the movie.
The meeting was attended by Ramesh Sippy, Salim-Javed, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan. I don’t know if this list is exhaustive or not. Amitabh Bachchan was of the view that the ending of the movie should be changed and that his character should not die. Everybody else was opposed to this idea as everyone else was of the view that there was nothing wrong with the movie. So, after taking a majority view (and not accepting Amitabh’s suggestion) they re-released the prints of Sholay without making any changes to the movie.
And surprise of all surprises, this time the movie did blockbuster business. I guess not all things in life have logic or explanation. It premiered at Minerva theatre in South Mumbai and had a record-run at the same theatre for almost 5 years (I think, though I am not sure).
Interstingly, Sholay was India’s first 70 mm stereophonic sound film. Following are some other interesting trivia I found on the net about Sholay.
(i) Shatrughan Sinha was initially cast for the role of Jai, but Amitabh Bachchan convinced the producers that he was suitable for the role.
(ii) Danny Denzongpa who was initially offered the role of Gabbar Singh was busy shooting for another film and he could not accept the role and the reluctant second choice Amjad Khan got it.
(iii) This was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate silver jubilee (25 weeks) at over a hundred theatres across India.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
More trivia on Sholay
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3 comments:
danny was shooting for feroz khan's dharmatma (the first indian godfather).
Amitabh first wanted to play the role of gabbar singh. He took dharmendra's help to get the role of jai.
dharmendra at his peak was a huge star, second only to the first superstar of indian cinema - Rajesh Khanna and then subsquently amitabh himself.
dilip kumar was offered the role of the thakur, but refused as he was enjoying his retirement.
dharmendra wanted to play the thakur's role, as that role is the backbone of the film. ramesh sippy dint want that to happen and cajoled dharmendra by telling him that then sanjeev will get to romance hema. both sanjeev and dharam were in love with hema...etc
Hey Tee,
Actually Sanjeev Kumar was very unlucky when it came to women.
He was on the verge of proposing to Hema Malini when he lost out to Dharmendra.
He also lost Leena Chandavarkar to Kishore Kumar. Both Sanjeev Kumar and Kishore Kumar had proposed to Leena Chandavarkar at the same time. But, Leena Chandavarkar chose Kishore Kumar over Sanjeev Kumar.
One of the best Top 10 bollywood blockbusters .
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