Released on August 15, 1975, ‘Sholay’s’ cast included some of Bollywood’s best-known names at the time – Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, upcoming star Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and the inimitable Amjad Khan.
In the initial days following its release, ‘Sholay’ was pegged as a Box Office disaster. What saved the film was word-of-mouth, which convinced the audience to give the film a second chance. The ‘second chance’ went on to create history. No one really explains the phenomenon of ‘word-of-mouth’ in 1975 – we are talking pre-Twitter and digital media days!
Sholay’s most-loved dialogues have remained part of cinematic history for the last 35 years. ‘Hum angrezon ke zamaane ke jailor hain‘ (Asrani); ‘Kitne aadmi the?’ (Amjad Khan); ‘Sardar, maine aapka namak khaya hai‘ (Viju Khote); and ‘Basanti inn kutto ke saamne mat nachna‘ (Dharmendra). With Mac Mohan’s Samba saying ‘poore pachaas hazaar‘.
‘Sholay’ made history not because of the money or budget involved, not because it was a multi-starrer, not because of the technicalities, but because of its subject. The way Salim-Javed had written it, the way Ramesh Sippy directed the film, the way human emotions were created, the character Veeru, Jay, Basanti…
All the names of characters were somewhere realistically known to writers or director. For eg Surma Bhopali was a forest officer in Bhopal known to Javed Sahab and Harilal nai was Sippy’s barber in childhood.
Sholay is a living example of heights in indian history of cinema that can not be even dreamt by any film maker today.
The most magnificent, meritorious, and celebrated film. After celebrating 35 years it still has a long route to go where in generations will remember Gabbar, Thakur., Jai, Veeru…………
