New Sholay - Ram Gopal Varma

This Sunday, when Seemaab Khan turns up to bat during his Kanga League A division game, he is expecting to hear an old sledge line that he actually loves to hear: “arre o bowler, kitne wicket baki hain” — from a close-in fielder.

Seemaab is the son of the late Amjad Khan, Sholay’s Gabbar. And with Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag — a contemporary take on the original blockbuster — being released on Friday, maidan cricketers wouldn’t miss a chance to rib Seemaab.

The 25-year-old soft-spoken star son, who is into theatre production on weekdays and is a serious, solid batsman and occasional leg-spinner on weekends, smiles when asked about Varma’s film.

“I’m definitely going to watch this movie. From the promos it seems this movie isn’t like the old one. But I’m in favour of remakes. The important thing for me is to watch Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) play Babban, which they say is based on Gabbar Singh,” says Seemaab.

When Seemaab was 10, he lost his doting dad, but the memories of his father encouraging him to bunk school for cricket are vivid.

Seemaab adds: “My mother recalls my father’s first day on the sets of Sholay. He had to give 17 retakes for his first shot and he was in tears when he called my mother in the night. He insisted that he was sure to be sacked.”

Those fears were unfounded as Amjad Khan became the movie’s biggest draw. But Seemaab says that even when the movie was released people had doubts. “The initial rushes were not satisfactory and there were suggestions that Gabbar Singh’s voice be re-dubbed by someone else. But Amitji and Sippy saab (director Ramesh Sippy) insisted on waiting for a few days,” he says as he talks about a tarot reader who had told Sippy that the movie would run for five years and Amjad Khan would be the reason.

In his initial years as a cricketer, Seemaab didn’t want to be seen as taking advantage of his father’s popularity. “Once he wanted to accompany me to the Ramakant Achrekar Sir’s academy. But I didn’t want people saying that I was included in the academy because of my father,” he says.

It’s this modesty that makes Seemaab a likeable character on the maidan. But that’s also why they would rib him with the ‘kitne wickets hain’ sledge.

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