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<unk> <unk> as <unk> thakur 's servant
a k hangal as rahim chacha the imam in the village
sachin as ahmed son of the imam
jagdeep as soorma bhopali a comical wood trader
leela mishra as <unk> basanti 's maternal aunt
asrani as the <unk> a comical character modelled after charlie chaplin in the great dictator ( 1940 )
<unk> mukherjee as <unk> prison barber and <unk> 's side @@ kick
mac mohan as sambha gabbar singh 's sidekick
<unk> khote as <unk> another of gabbar 's men whom he kills in a game of russian roulette
<unk> as inspector khurana radha 's father
helen in a special appearance in song mehbooba mehbooba
jalal agha in a special appearance in song mehbooba mehbooba

= = production = =


= = = development = = =

the idea for sholay began as a four @@ line snippet which screenwriter pair salim @@ javed told g p sippy and ramesh sippy two other producer / director teams had earlier rejected the idea ramesh sippy liked the concept and hired them to develop it the original idea of the film involved an army officer who decided to hire two ex @@ soldiers to avenge the murder of his family the army officer was later changed to a policeman because sippy felt that it would be difficult to get permission to shoot scenes depicting army activities salim @@ javed completed the script in one month incorporating names and personality traits of their friends and acquaintances
the film was loosely styled after akira kurosawa 's 1954 film seven samurai and drew heavily from the conventions of westerns especially sergio leone 's spaghetti westerns such as once upon a time in the west ( 1968 ) and john sturges ' film the magnificent seven ( 1960 ) sholay was also influenced by the westerns of sam peckinpah such as the wild bunch ( 1969 ) and pat garrett and billy the kid ( 1973 ) and by george roy hill 's butch cassidy and the sundance kid ( 1969 ) a scene depicting an attempted train robbery was inspired by a similar scene in north west frontier ( 1959 ) and a scene showing the massacre of thakur 's family has been compared with the massacre of the mcbain family in once upon a time in the west some plot elements were borrowed from the indian films mera gaon mera desh ( 1971 ) and khote <unk> ( 1973 )
the character gabbar singh was modelled on a real @@ life dacoit of the same name who had menaced the villages around gwalior in the 1950s any policeman captured by the real gabbar singh had his ears and nose cut off and was released as a warning to other policemen the character was also influenced by the villain el indio ( played by gian maria volontè ) of sergio leone 's for a few dollars more ( 1965 ) soorma bhopali a minor comic relief character was based on an acquaintance of actor jagdeep a forest officer from bhopal named soorma the real @@ life soorma eventually threatened to press charges when people who had viewed the film began referring to him as a woodcutter the main characters ' names jai and veeru mean victory and heroism in hindi

= = = casting = = =

the producers considered danny denzongpa for the role of bandit chief gabbar singh but he could not accept it as he was committed to act in feroz khan 's <unk> ( 1975 ) under production at the same time amjad khan who was the second choice prepared himself for the part by reading the book <unk> chambal which told of the exploits of chambal dacoits the book was written by taroon kumar bhaduri the father of fellow cast member jaya bhaduri as cast members had read the script ahead of time many were interested in playing different parts <unk> was considered for the role of thakur baldev singh but sippy thought sanjeev kumar was a better choice initially dharmendra was also interested to play the role of thakur he eventually gave up the role when sippy informed him that sanjeev kumar would play veeru if that happened and would be paired with hema malini who dharmendra was trying to woo dharmendra knew that kumar was also interested in malini sippy wanted <unk> sinha to play the part of jai but there were already several big stars signed and amitabh bachchan who was not extremely popular yet lobbied hard to get the part for himself
during the film 's production four of the leads became romantically involved bachchan married bhaduri four months before filming started this led to shooting delays when bhaduri became pregnant with their daughter shweta by the time of the film 's release she was pregnant with their son abhishek dharmendra had begun wooing malini during their earlier film seeta aur geeta ( 1972 ) and used the location shoot of sholay to further pursue her during their romantic scenes dharmendra would often pay the light boys to spoil the shot thereby ensuring many retakes and allowing him to spend more time with her the couple married five years after the film 's release

= = = filming = = =

much of sholay was shot in the rocky terrain of ramanagara a town near bangalore karnataka the filmmakers had to build a road from the bangalore highway to ramanagara for convenient access to the sets art director ram <unk> had an entire township built on the site a prison set was constructed near <unk> studio in mumbai also outdoors to match the natural lighting of the on @@ location sets one part of ramanagara was for a time called sippy nagar as a tribute to the director of the film as of 2010 a visit to the sholay rocks ( where much the film was shot ) was still being offered to tourists travelling through ramanagara
filming began on location on 3 october 1973 with a scene featuring bachchan and bhaduri the film had a lavish production for its time ( with frequent banquets and parties for the cast ) took two and a half years to make and went over budget one reason for its high cost was that sippy re @@ filmed scenes many times to get his desired effect yeh dosti a 5 @@ minute song sequence took 21 days to shoot two short scenes in which radha lights lamps took 20 days to film because of lighting problems and the shooting of the scene in which gabbar kills the imam 's son lasted 19 days the train robbery sequence shot on the mumbai pune railway route near panvel took more than 7 weeks to complete
sholay was the first indian film to have a stereophonic soundtrack and to use the 70 mm widescreen format however since actual 70 mm cameras were expensive at the time the film was shot on traditional 35 mm film and the 4 3 picture was subsequently converted to a 2 @@ 2 1 frame regarding the process sippy said a 70mm [ sic ] format takes the awe of the big screen and magnifies it even more to make the picture even bigger but since i also wanted a spread of sound we used six @@ track stereophonic sound and combined it with the big screen it was definitely a differentiator the use of 70 mm was emphasised by film posters on which the name of the film was stylised to match the cinemascope logo film posters also sought to differentiate the film from those which had come before one of them added the tagline the greatest star cast ever assembled the greatest story ever told

= = = alternate version = = =

the director 's original cut of sholay has a different ending in which thakur kills gabbar along with some additional violent scenes gabbar 's death scene and the scene in which the imam 's son is killed were cut from the film by india 's censor board as was the scene in which thakur 's family is massacred the censor board was concerned about the violence and that viewers may be influenced to violate the law by punishing people severely although sippy fought to keep the scenes eventually he had to re @@ shoot the ending of the film and as directed by the censor board have the police arrive just before thakur can kill gabbar the censored theatrical version was the only one seen by audiences for fifteen years the original unedited cut of the film finally came out in a british release on vhs in 1990 since then eros international has released two versions on dvd the director 's cut of the film preserves the original full frame and is 204 minutes in length the censored widescreen version is 198 minutes long

= = themes = =

scholars have noted several themes in the film such as glorification of violence conformation to feudal ethos debate between social order and mobilised usurpers homosocial bonding and the film 's role as a national allegory
<unk> banerjea a sociologist in the london school of economics notes that sholay exhibits a sympathetic construction of ' rogue ' masculinity exemplified by the likeable outlaws jai and veeru banerjea argues during the film the moral boundary between legality and criminality gradually erodes film scholar wimal dissanayake agrees that the film brought a new stage in the evolving dialectic between violence and social order to indian cinema film scholar m madhava prasad states that jai and veeru represent a marginalised population that is introduced into conventional society prasad says that through the elements of revenge included in the plot and the application of jai and veeru 's criminality for the greater good the narrative reflects reactionary politics and the audience is compelled to accept feudal order banerjea explains that though jai and veeru are mercenaries they are humanised by their emotional needs such dualism makes them vulnerable in contrast to the pure evil of gabbar singh
gabbar singh the film 's antagonist was well received by the audience despite his pervasive sadistic cruelty dissanayake explains that the audience was fascinated by the dialogues and mannerisms of the character and this element of spectacle outweighed his actions a first for indian melodrama he notes that the picturisation of violence in the film was <unk> and uninhibited he further notes that unlike earlier melodramas in which the female body occupies the audience 's attention as an object of male fetish in sholay the male body becomes the centrepiece it becomes the battleground where good and evil compete for supremacy dissanayake argues that sholay can be viewed as a national allegory it lacks a comforting logical narrative it shows social stability being repeatedly challenged and it shows the devaluation of human life resulting from a lack of emotions taken together these elements comprise the allegorical representation of india the narrative style of sholay with its violence revenge and vigilante action is occasionally compared by scholars to the political unrest in india at the time of its release this tension culminated in the emergency ( rule by decree ) declared by prime minister indira gandhi in 1975
<unk> and sahai note that although the film borrowed heavily from the hollywood western genre particularly in its visuals it was successfully <unk> as an example william van der heide has compared a massacre scene in sholay with a similar scene in once upon a time in the west although both films were similar in technical style sholay emphasised indian family values and melodramatic tradition while the western was more materialistic and restrained in its approach maithili rao in encyclopedia of hindi cinema notes that sholay infuses the style of the western genre into a feudalistic ethos ted shen of the chicago reader notes sholay 's hysterical visual style and intermittent populist message cultural critic and islamist scholar ziauddin sardar lampoons the film in his book the secret politics of our desires innocence <unk> and indian popular cinema both for its caricature and stereotyping of muslim and women characters and for what he calls mockery of innocent villagers sardar notes that the two most prominent muslim characters in the film are soorma bhopali ( a buffoonish criminal ) and an impotent victim of the bandits ( the imam ) meanwhile the sole function of one female character ( radha ) is to suffer her fate in silence while the other female lead ( basanti ) is just a garrulous village belle
some scholars have indicated that sholay contains homosocial themes ted shen describes the male bonding shown in the film as bordering on camp style dina holtzman in her book bollywood and globalization indian popular cinema nation and diaspora states that the death of jai and resultant break of bonding between the two male leads is necessary for the sake of establishing a normative heterosexual relationship ( that of veeru and basanti )

= = music = =

r d burman composed the film 's music and the lyrics were written by anand bakshi the songs used in the film and released on the original soundtrack are listed below following that is a list of unused tracks and dialogues which were released later on an updated soundtrack the album 's cover image depicts an emotional scene from the film in which basanti is forced to sing and dance on the song <unk> jab tak hai jaan on broken glass under the blazing sun to save veeru 's life
the song mehbooba mehbooba was sung by its composer r d burman who received his sole filmfare award nomination for playback singing for his effort the song which is often featured on bollywood hit song compilations samples say you love me by greek singer <unk> roussos mehbooba mehbooba has been extensively anthologised remixed and recreated a version was created in 2005 by the kronos quartet for their grammy @@ nominated album you 've stolen my heart featuring asha bhosle it was also remixed and sung by himesh reshammiya along with bhosle in his debut acting film aap kaa <unk> ( 2007 ) yeh dosti has been called the ultimate friendship anthem it was remixed and sung by shankar mahadevan and udit narayan for the 2010 malayalam film four friends and also in 2010 it was used to symbolise india 's friendship with the united states during a visit from president barack obama
several songs from the soundtrack were included in the annual <unk> <unk> list of top filmi songs mehbooba <unk> was listed at no 24 on the 1975 list and at no 6 on the 1976 list koi <unk> was listed at no 30 in 1975 and no 20 in 1976 yeh dosti was listed at no 9 in 1976 despite the soundtrack 's success at the time the songs from sholay attracted less attention than the film 's dialogue a rarity for bollywood the producers were thus prompted to release records with only dialogue taken together the album sales totalled an unprecedented 500 @@ 000 units and became one of the top selling bollywood soundtracks of the 1970s
music critic oli marlow reviewed the soundtrack in 2013 calling it a unique fusion of religious folk and classical music with influences from around the world he also commented on the sound design of the film calling it psychedelic and saying that there was a lot of incredible incidental music in the film that was not included in the soundtrack releases in a 1999 paper submitted to london 's symposium on sound in cinema film critic <unk> a chatterji said sholay offers a model lesson on how sound can be used to signify the terror a character evokes sholay is also exemplary in its use of <unk> to jump cut to a different scene and time without breaking the continuity of the narrative yet intensifying the drama

= = reception = =


= = = box office = = =

sholay was released on 15 august 1975 indian independence day in mumbai due to lacklustre reviews and a lack of effective visual marketing tools it saw poor financial returns in its first two weeks from the third week however viewership picked up owing to positive word of mouth during the initial slow period the director and writer considered re @@ shooting some scenes so that amitabh bachchan 's character would not die when business picked up they abandoned this idea after being helped additionally by a soundtrack release containing dialogue snippets sholay soon became an overnight sensation the film was then released in other distribution zones such as delhi uttar pradesh bengal and hyderabad on 11 october 1975 it became the highest grossing bollywood film of 1975 and film ranking website box office india has given the film a verdict of all time blockbuster
sholay went on to earn a still @@ standing record of 60 golden jubilees across india and was the first film in india to celebrate a silver jubilee at over 100 theatres it was shown continuously at mumbai 's minerva theatre for over five years sholay was the indian film with the longest theatrical run until dilwale dulhania le jayenge ( 1995 ) broke its record of 286 weeks in 2001
exact figures are not available on the budget and box office earnings of sholay but film trade websites provide estimates of its success according to box office india sholay earned about ₹ 150 million nett gross ( valued at about us $ 16 @@ 778 @@ 000 in 1975 ) in india during its first run which was many times its ₹ 30 million ( valued at about us $ 3 @@ 355 @@ 000 in 1975 ) budget those earnings were a record that remained unbroken for nineteen years which is also the longest amount of time that a film has held the record its original gross was increased further with re @@ releases during the late 1970s 1980s 1990s and early 2000s it is often cited that after adjusting the figures for inflation sholay is one of the highest grossing films in the history of indian cinema although such figures are not known with certainty in 2012 box office india gave ₹ 1 @@ 63 billion ( us $ 24 million ) as sholay 's adjusted net gross whereas times of india in a 2009 report of business of indian films reported over ₹ 3 billion ( us $ 45 million ) as the adjusted gross

= = = critical response = = =

initial critical reviews of sholay were negative among contemporary critics <unk> <unk> of india today called the film a dead ember and a gravely flawed attempt filmfare said that the film was an unsuccessful mincing of western style with indian milieu making it an imitation western neither here nor there others labelled it as sound and fury signifying nothing and a second @@ rate take @@ off of the 1971 film mera gaon mera desh trade journals and columnists initially called the film a flop in a 1976 article in the journal studies an irish quarterly review author michael gallagher praised the technical achievement of the film but otherwise criticised it stating as a spectacle it breaks new ground but on every other level it is intolerable formless incoherent superficial in human image and a somewhat nasty piece of violence
over time the critical reception to sholay greatly improved it is now considered a classic and among the greatest hindi @@ language films in a 2005 bbc review the well @@ rounded characters and simple narrative of the film were commended but the comical cameos of asrani and jagdeep were considered unnecessary on the film 's 35th anniversary the hindustan times wrote that it was a trailblazer in terms of camera work as well as music and that practically every scene dialogue or even a small character was a highlight in 2006 the film society of lincoln center described sholay as an extraordinary and utterly seamless blend of adventure comedy music and dance labelling it an indisputable classic chicago review critic ted shen criticised the film in 2002 for its formulaic plot and slapdash cinematography and noted that the film alternates between slapstick and melodrama in their obituary of the producer gp sippy the new york times said that sholay revolutionized hindi filmmaking and brought true professionalism to indian script writing

= = = awards = = =

sholay was nominated for nine filmfare awards but the only winner was m s shinde who won the award for best editing the film also won three awards at the 1976 bengal film journalists ' association awards ( hindi section ) best actor in supporting role for amjad khan best cinematographer ( colour ) for dwarka <unk> and best art director for ram <unk> sholay received a special award at the 50th filmfare awards in 2005 best film of 50 years

= = legacy = =

sholay has received many best film honours it was declared the film of the millennium by bbc india in 1999 it topped the british film institute 's top 10 indian films of all time poll of 2002 and was voted the greatest indian movie in a sky digital poll of one million british indians in 2004 it was also included in time magazine 's best of bollywood list in 2010 and in cnn @@ ibn 's list of the 100 greatest indian films of all time in 2013
sholay inspired many films and pastiches and spawned a subgenre of films the curry western which is a play on the term spaghetti western it was an early and most definitive masala film and a trend @@ setter for multi @@ star films the film was a watershed for bollywood 's scriptwriters who were not paid well before sholay after the film 's success script writing became a more respected profession
certain scenes and dialogues from the film earned iconic status in india such as <unk> <unk> the ( how many men were there ) jo dar gaya <unk> mar gaya ( one who is scared is dead ) and <unk> <unk> <unk> hai ( looks like you two are very close ) all dialogues of gabbar singh these and other popular dialogues entered the people 's daily vernacular characters and dialogues from the film continue to be referred to and parodied in popular culture gabbar singh the sadistic villain ushered in an era in hindi films characterised by seemingly omnipotent oppressors as villains who play the pivotal role in setting up the context of the story such as <unk> ( played by kulbhushan kharbanda ) of shaan ( 1980 ) <unk> ( amrish puri ) of mr india ( 1987 ) and <unk> ( amrish puri ) of <unk> ( 1989 ) filmfare in 2013 named gabbar singh the most iconic villain in the history of indian cinema and four actors were included in its 2010 list of 80 iconic performances for their work in this film
the film is often credited with making amitabh bachchan a superstar two years after he became a star with zanjeer ( 1973 ) some of the supporting actors remained etched in public memory as the characters they played in sholay for example mac mohan continued to be referred to as sambha even though his character had just one line major and minor characters continue to be used in commercials promos films and sitcoms amjad khan acted in many villainous roles later in his career he also played gabbar singh again in the 1991 spoof ramgarh ke sholay and reprised the role in commercials the british film institute in 2002 wrote that fear of gabbar singh is still invoked by mothers to put their children to sleep the 2012 film gabbar singh named after the character became the highest grossing telugu film up to that point comedian jagdeep who played soorma bhopali in the film attempted to use his sholay success to create a spinoff he directed and played the lead role in the 1988 film soorma bhopali in which dharmendra and bachchan had cameos
in 2004 sholay was digitally remastered and shown again to packed theatres in india including mumbai 's minerva where it had run successfully 29 years earlier an attempt to remake sholay ram gopal varma 's film <unk> ( 2007 ) starring amitabh bachchan as the villain was a commercial and critical disaster because of television and home media sholay is widely available and still popular twenty years after its release sholay was first shown on the indian dd national television channel where it drew the highest ratings ever for a film broadcast video game producer <unk> released the sholay ramgarh express game for mobile phones in 2004 along with other sholay themed content such as wallpapers video clips and ringtones
sholay has been the subject of two books and many articles wimal dissanayake and malti sahai 's sholay a cultural reading ( 1992 ) attempts a comprehensive scholarly study that sets the film within the broader history of popular cinema in india anupama chopra 's sholay the making of a classic ( 2000 ) provides an inside look at the film 's production based on interviews with the director stars and crew members
sholay has been labelled by chopra as the gold standard in indian cinema and a reference point for audiences and trade analysts over the years the film has reached a mythic stature in popular culture and has been called the greatest hindi film of all time it belongs to only a small collection of films including kismet ( 1943 ) mother india ( 1957 ) mughal @@ e @@ azam ( 1960 ) and hum aapke hain koun ( 1994 ) which are repeatedly watched throughout india and are viewed as definitive hindi films with cultural significance the lasting effect of sholay on indian cinema was summarised by anupama chopra when in 2004 she called it no longer just a film [ but ] an event in the 2000 book sholay the making of a classic the noted director shekhar kapur stated there has never been a more defining film on the indian screen indian film history can be divided into sholay bc and sholay ad the film was jointly released in pakistan by geo films and <unk> entertainment on 17 april 2015 almost 40 years after its theatrical release the film 's premiere in the country was held in karachi

= = 3d re @@ release = =

filmmaker ketan mehta 's company maya digital was responsible for converting sholay into the 3d format mehta was approached by g p sippy 's grandson sasha sippy about the project in 2010 in march 2012 shaan uttam singh the grandson of producer g p sippy said that he would sponsor a conversion of the film to 3d and release it in late 2012 this was later postponed to late 2013 and eventually finalised for 3 january 2014 it took ₹ 250 million ( us $ 3 @@ 7 million ) to convert sholay to 3d
under the leadership of computer animator frank foster 350 people worked to convert the film into the digital 3d format for which every scene had to be individually restored colour @@ corrected and re @@ composited in 3d to match the depth new set @@ pieces particularly those suited to the new format were also included such as digital logs which scatter in the direction of the camera during the first half of the film when the train collides with them the gunshot scene which frees jai and veeru from their handcuffs and panoramic views of gabbar 's hideout in the caves
the theatrical trailer and release date were unveiled by the original script @@ writers salim khan and javed akhtar the two original leads bachchan and dharmendra were also involved in promoting the re @@ release the film was released in 1 @@ 000 screens in india and additional screens overseas it earned approximately ₹ 100 million ( us $ 1 @@ 5 million ) during its re @@ release not enough to recover its conversion cost


= adam stansfield =

adam stansfield ( 10 september 1978 10 august 2010 ) was an english professional footballer who played as a striker he competed professionally for yeovil town hereford united and exeter city and won promotion from the football conference to the football league with all three teams
having played for three counties as a child stansfield began his career in non @@ league with cullompton rangers and elmore and had unsuccessful trials at league teams at the age of 23 he signed his first professional contract with yeovil town after impressing their manager gary johnson in a match against them in his first season he helped them win the fa trophy scoring in the 2002 final the following season yeovil won the conference and promotion into the football league although stansfield was ruled out with a broken leg in the first game in 2004 he transferred to hereford united where he won promotion to the football league via the 2006 play @@ offs and repeated the feat with exeter city a year later he also helped exeter earn promotion into league one in 2008 at international level stansfield played five matches and scored one goal for england 's national semi @@ professional team winning the 2005 four nations tournament
stansfield was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in april 2010 he returned to training after surgery and chemotherapy but died on 10 august that year a foundation in his name was posthumously set up by his family to provide sporting opportunities and raise awareness of colorectal cancer he has posthumously been featured on a flybe airliner livery and tourist currency in exeter

= = early and personal life = =

stansfield was born in plymouth devon as the third of four children and supported nottingham forest on 2 june 2001 he married marie with whom he had three sons devon journalist gary andrews remembered stansfield as a man who would spend time with his family after matches while speaking to fans and the press he wrote that i had the pleasure of interviewing adam on a regular basis i say pleasure because his answers were thoughtful and intelligent and he came across as a man who was delighted to be back home with his friends and family

= = career = =

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