In a recent interview, director Ramesh Sippy discussed how his father, GP Sippy, advised him to produce the “four lines” version of Sholay rather than the whole script that the screenwriter team Salim-Javed had written.
Furthermore, Sippy explained how the famous movie’s cast was chosen. Leading actors in Sholay include Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, and Amjad Khan.
Sippy revealed to Lallantop that Salim-Javed also offered him the idea for Sholay and the script for the movie Majboor, which was ultimately produced by Ravi Tandon. While creating the Sholay narrative, he was eager to make a movie based on the script. He was stopped by his father though.
“It was just an idea of four lines and we had to develop it. The other script was ready and I thought, by the time it will develop, I will make the other film. But my father said, ‘Aap issi pe (kaam) kijiye (You work on this only).’ This was the one time he interfered and maybe it was the right interference because if we would have started making that film, we would not have been able to develop Sholay as we did,” recalled Sippy.
The director also disclosed that Hema Malini had been reluctant to play Basanti in Sholay at first because of the size of the part. She spoke to Ramesh Sippy and mentioned that, “Seeta Aur Geeta ke baad aap mujhe aisa role de rahe hain? (After Seeta Aur Geeta, you are offering me this role?)”. “When the role was narrated to her in detail, with final dialogues, she put in a lot of effort to do justice to the role,” Sippy said.
Even though Amitabh Bachchan preferred the character of Gabbar because he was coming off a string of duds, it was simple to persuade him to play Jai. However Dharmendra refused initially. The actor averred, “This is is the story of Thakur and he is fighting against Gabbar. What will we do?” Sippy then said, “Fine. Either do Thakur or Gabbar’s role but then you won’t get Hema Malini.”
Danny Dengzopa was supposed to play Gabbar in the cult classic before Amjad Khan, but he was forced to leave the movie because of a scheduling conflict. “Danny was ready to do it. But when we had to shoot, he was struck in Dharmatma’s shoot. So, to have him, we would have had to wait for another 6-8 months and I had already taken 2 years..” Sippy added.
Thereafter, Salim Khan recommended Amjad Khan for Gabbar’s role. “I realised I have seen this boy in a play about South Africa in which my sister was also there. He had done a good job in it. When he came to the office, on the first look, he seemed to be a different face, ek bhaari bharkam chehra aur ajeeb sa ek look hai, so we thought he will fit into what we want to create,” recalled Sippy.
Sholay is termed as one of the most successful films of the Hindi cinema industry till date which have fetched global audience through good chemistry between actors, a fantastic script backed with impactful dialogues and reminiscing music which is still ruling hearts.
