August 15 will mark the 50-year anniversary of the marquee film of Bollywood, Sholay. Directed by Ramesh Sippy, the film changed the career of everyone involved with the project, including writers Salim-Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar). The cast of the film was nothing short of an all-star team, with names like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, and Jaya Bachchan leading the charge. Remembering the impact of the film, actor Farhan Akhtar shared some anecdotes about the making of the film and how Sholay’s climax was completely different from what was eventually kept in the film.
Promoting his upcoming film 120 Bahadur on Prakhar Gupta’s podcast, Farhan talked about why the film worked so well and said, “The film just leaves a huge impact on you. The way it was mounted and all the characters were fun. It wasn’t as if it was just Jai and Veeru who were exciting. The jailer, Surma Bhopali, Gabbar, and Basanti were all great characters. It was a massive hit.” He added that visually the film was head and shoulders above the rest, and the experience it created in the theatres was unforgettable.
“To me it was a very strong emotional movie, and it was sprinkled with such good entertainment. The direction and the shooting of the film were so great, and it was something which had never happened before apart from maybe Mughal-E-Azam. You look at the visuals, and it makes you think, ‘How did they shoot this?’ The experience it created in the theatres was amazing, and the technical prowess was just so far ahead of anything anyone else was doing at the time. It still stands the test of time, and people still don’t make films like that. Everyone is so dependent on VFX, and that will never look as good as Sholay,” said Farhan.
Talking about the climax, Farhan revealed that his father, Javed Akhtar, and Salim Khan weren’t happy with the advised changes they had to make to the script, but the two had no choice. He shared, “The emotional core of the film was very strong, the entire narrative of Thakur plotting his revenge after his hands were cut. We get lost in the Jai Veeru conversation, but the spine of the film was the honest police officer who goes after a dacoit after he kills his family. He hires these two good-for-nothing people, and in the original ending he actually kills Gabbar. They had to change it due to the Emergency, and the original ending is now available. That is actually when he cries, after crushing Gabbar with his own feet.”
He went on and described Javed and Salim’s state of mind while making the changes and said, “When Dad and Salim Sahab had to change the ending, they were wondering about everyone showing up, including the villagers, the police, and the protagonists. They joked that the only person missing now is a postman. The ending and the police showing up didn’t make sense to them, but they had to change it; they had no choice.”
Director Sippy also talked about the film and its changed climax during the Pune International Film Festival back in 2018. He said that the Censor board made him change the ending. He told the audience, “I had shot a different ending for Sholay, where Gabbar is killed by Thakur. But they (the Censor Board), didn’t allow that. They were not happy about Thakur killing Gabbar with his feet. I was also caught in a sticky situation… how else would Thakur kill him? He couldn’t have used a gun since he had no arms. They were also unhappy about too much violence… they said ‘you have to change the end’. I wasn’t happy, but I did that.”
