41 years of 'Sholay': 10 interesting facts about the blockbuster movie

New Delhi: Forty one years ago, Ramesh Sippy went on to make a movie starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Amjad Khan and Sanjeev Kumar. The film was named ‘Sholay'.  

Little did the people associated with the film know that ‘Sholay' was going to set a benchmark in the history of Indian cinema. The cult classic film went on to dazzle many generations of film lovers.

From songs to dialogues to characters to the action, everything about the film left a mark on the minds and hearts of the viewers. And even after forty years of its release, all the memories remain fresh like it happened just yesterday.

From the iconic characters like Gabbar Singh to Jai-Veeru's tale of friendship, the subtle love story to powerful dialogues, Sholay consisted of all the ingredients that made it one of the biggest Hindi films ever to screen in Bollywood.

So as the blockbuster movie is all set to celebrate its 41st anniversary, here we bring to you some interesting facts about ‘Sholay' which you may or may not know:

1. Did you know that late Amjad Khan was never the first choice for playing Gabbar Singh? The role was first offered to Danny Denzongpa. However, Danny turned the offer down as he was already busy with Feroz Khan's Dharmatma which was to be shot in Afghanistan at the same time.

2. We all remember the revenge seeking Thakur Baldev Singh, but most of us don't know Sippy was considering veteran actor Pran for the role. However, the role later went to Sanjeev Kumar, and there wouldn't have been a better choice than this as he did fair justice to the role of Thakur.

3. Amitabh-Jaya Bachchan and Dharmendra-Hema Malini are two of the most adored couples of B-town. But did you know both the couples were romantically involved during the making of Sholay? In fact, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan had married just four months before the shooting of ‘Sholay' started, while Dharmendra married Hema five years after the release of the blockbuster movie.

4. The famous Bachchan couple was expecting their first child Shweta during the shooting of ‘Sholay'. Jaya's pregnancy even delayed the shooting for several days. Interestingly, Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan were expecting their second child Abhishek Bachchan at the time of the release of ‘Sholay'.

5. The ‘dream girl' of Bollywood Hema Malini had several men going crazy for her in and out of the industry. One of them was the veteran actor Sanjeev Kumar, who had even proposed to her before the shooting of ‘Sholay' started.

6. Interestingly, Dharmendra was quite interested in playing the role of Thakur Baldev Singh. However, when the actor was informed about Sanjeev Kumar playing the role of Veeru opposite Hema Malini, Dharmendra gave up the idea of playing Thakur and went on to play Veeru because he too was wooing Hema Malini during those days.

7. Dharmendra was head over heels in love with ‘dream girl' Hema Malini so much that the actor reportedly used to pay the light boys to disrupt the shooting whenever a romantic sequence of the couple was being shot so that there could be several takes.

8. Sholay was first released on August 15, 1975, with a different climax. However, the film got an average response which prompted the film makers to re-think  the climax and go with the idea of killing Amitabh Bachchan's character of Jai. The idea just clicked and Sholay went on to break several records.

9. Remember the famous friendship song ‘Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge' starring Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra from the blockbuster movie? Well, the song took 21 days to shoot.

10. On April 17, 2015, Sholay was released in Pakistan for the first time. While the film was released by Geo films and Mandviwalla Entertainment jointly, its premiere was held in Karachi.