Director Ramesh Sippy, who set a benchmark in Hindi cinema with “Sholay”, is against the remake of the popular cult-classic, which turns 40 this week.
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who attempted the remake of the timeless movie as “Aag” with Amitabh Bachchan, south star Mohanlal, Ajay Devgan, Prashant Raj Sachdev and Sushmita Sen, drew a lot of flak and the movie failed at the box office miserably.
“It is a world full of challenges… they can get the rights… and if one thinks they can make a better film they should go ahead and make it. Those who have made (remake), have failed. I had advised him (RGV) not to make it,” Sippy told PTI. “Even I haven’t dared to touch it again as people still remember the original ‘Sholay’. It is inadvisable to remake it,” he said.
“Sholay” is a story of two criminals, Veeru and Jai (played by Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan), who were hired by a retired police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) to capture the dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Actresses Hema Malini and Jaya Badhuri played Veeru and Jai’s love interests. The action-adventure directed by Ramesh Sippy and produced by his father G P Sippy is a landmark film having crossed all popularity milestones. It is also one of the most-watched Bollywood film.
“While I was making the film I did not think it will have such an impact on audience. Our intention was to make a good film and we worked very hard for it. It had so many firsts– big talented actors coming together, we had action guys coming from England and Italy and others,” Sippy said.
Sippy, who released the film on August 15, 1975 took quite a lot of time to make “Sholay” as he wanted everything to be perfect.
It was shot in the rocky terrain of Ramanagar, in the southern state of Karnataka, over a span of two and a half years. Sippy’s producer father was generous enough not to remind his son about the film going over budget. “My father never reminded me of the budget shooting up. There were no corporates sitting on my head. There were several problems that we faced… we overcame it. But we were patient,” he said.
