Ramesh Sippy dismisses Aag
Ramesh Sippy will not hear the last of Sholay. Thirty-two years after he directed the classic made by father G P Sippy (who is now 93), Ramesh had to endure Ram Gopal Varma’s terrible remake week before last, and now there is another Sippy wanting to play with Sholay again.
This time it is his nephew, Sasha. BT met the reticent filmmaker at home, where posters of Sholay adorn the walls still, and got his take on RGV Ki Aag and Sasha’s plan to rekindle the smouldering embers of the 1975 hit movie.
What Ramu’s intentions were, I don’t know, admitted Ramesh. Everyone has the right to remake a movie. And while Ramu’s attempt was brave, it was also foolish. But he knows how to cover up for his deeds and put on a brave front. His apology will be appreciated but he need not have gone through this whole exercise and then apologised.
He should have attempted something different. He forgot he was taking a classic that’s embedded into the psyche of the Indian masses for years. As for Amitabh Bachchan’s role in Varma’s debacle, he added, He did what he felt was right. The audience gave its verdict and Amitabh has understood it.
Ramesh has nothing against remakes. There must be a definite and a right reason to remake a movie. In the West, remakes are done wonderfully. Titanic is a classic example, he said. But he is convinced certain works should be left untouched. That’s why they
are called classics. Nobody tried to remake Gone With The Wind, for example.
In Bollywood, he had praise for Sanjay Leela Bansali, Farhan Akhtar and Pradeep, who brought alive classics like Devdas, Don and Parineeta respectively. Sanjay felt he could give something that wasn’t there in the earlier black and white Devdas. He had a certain
concept in mind and accordingly, he updated it to the level of today’s audiences.
He justified his intent with a fantastic project. Similarly Parineeta and Don worked well too. The bottomline is that you need to know what you are going to do with the product which has a standing in the history of cinema, added Ramesh.
He is amazed, however, that RGV’s fiasco has not discouraged nephew Sasha from contemplating a Sippy remake of their own movie. Sasha is believed to have approached RGV to direct Sholay, but nothing came of this. I have to commend Shasha for taking RGV to the court and getting the name of his movie changed, but I cannot commend him for
this announcement.
I don’t see the reason for him to do so. Being a family elder, I certainly will advise him to stay away. Just because he has the right to the original, he should not use Sholay as a gimmick, warned Ramesh. Sasha needs more experience to attempt something like this.
He should make a few more films first.
Sholay, Ramesh revealed, was an exciting movie to make, but never an asy one. The industry wasn’t prepared for a movie like that. He wouldn’t want to remake his classic because he doesn’t think the original can be improved.
Maybe it could be made a little shorter and sharper, but then the intent will be lost. I was asked by my family to remake it about seven years ago and I refused, he said.