New Sholay - Ram Gopal Varma

At 64, it’s tough to sit in front of the makeup man for hours, getting greasepaint on for film shoots. But Amitabh Bachchan likes to practice his reel life dialogues in real life. Like his character in Sholay says, ‘Jo dar gaya samjho mar gaya.‘

But he does not actually utter this line in Ram Gopal Varma’s version of the Ramesh Sippy classic. “I will only say the dialogues during the film’s premiere. At this moment, all I can say is that Gabbar is based in Mumbai. We have only shot the opening scene of the film.”

After much delay, the shooting of RGV’s Sholay finally started last week after the director and producer Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs unveiled Gabbar’s new look.

Speaking about his look, Bachchan says, “I got an eye infection after the shooting. If you notice carefully, you will find one eye is brown and the other is blue. They used two different-coloured lenses.”

His eye infection explained his large red sunglasses at the event.

Bachchan added with a chuckle, “At this age, I have to put on a beard all the time. I hate it but I only get such roles.”

But didn’t he feel that RGV’s Gabbar looked defeated rather than Amjad Khan’s powerful one? Bachchan said defensively, “I don’t think so. But you must realise that defeated and tired people can look very menacing.”

Big B stated that his look was entirely Ramu’s take. “I did what he told me to do,” AB said.

Amitabh had played the lead role of Jai in the 1975 classic. Dharmendra played his best friend, Veeru.

Bachchan said, “I wanted to play Gabbar when I first heard the script. But I was disappointed when Ramesh Sippy said that Amjad Khan was doing it. I had to be satisfied with Jai’s role. Gabbar’s role is beautiful in Sholay. He has great dialogues and the best scenes in the film.”

The shooting of RGV’s Sholay is expected to be complete by April 2007 and is slated for a May release.

Big B admitted that he was nervous on the first day of the shoot. “But this is true for me for every new film I do. The memories of Sholay will always be with me when I shoot for this film but as an artist I have to close that window and open a new chapter for the new Sholay.”

Language: Hindi
Year: 1975
Actors: Amjad Khan, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, A.K.Hangal
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Story: Salim-Javed
Producer: G.P.Sippy
Music: R.D.Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Playback Singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and R.D.Burman
Dance: P.L.Raj

A rara avis.

When it was first released in the mid-1970s, Sholay set Indian movie screens afire. It was the once-in-a-decade mega hit that smashed all records.

Even deep in the Hindi-hating southern state of Tamil Nadu, in the late 1970s one would come across young boys humming “Mehbooba, Mehbooba,” a popular song from the movie.

The fast-paced film has a little something for everyone - gripping action, comedy, tragedy, romance and even some nice songs.

Former inspector Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) hires two criminals Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) to catch a notorious dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) to avenge an old enmity. You see Gabbar had wiped out Thakur’s family after escaping from jail.

Veeru and Jai arrive in Ramgarh village to help Thakur in his quest and that’s when the rubber hits the road.

As the cruel dacoit Gabbar, Amjad Khan dazzles. Can anyone forget Gabbar’s memorable lines such as “Tera kya hoga, Kalia”

Sanjeev Kumar shines as the angry ex-cop, Dharmendra excels and Amitabh is adequate. Hema Malini as the horse carriage driver Basanti and Jaya Bhaduri as Radha, the widowed daughter-in-law of Thakur, are good in supporting roles.

Director Ramesh Sippy delivers a knockout punch with Sholay.

Much of the movie was shot in the hills of Ramanagar, near Bangalore. Perhaps, that’s why the village in which the movie is set was called Ramgarh.

Sholay was also reportedly the first 70-mm movie in India.

P.S: Alas, Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kumar and R.D.Burman are no more.

It’s final. Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay is ready for release. The date is…don’t freak out….Friday the 13th of July.

Inauspicious by the Christian calendar. “But not by my calendar. I like to do the unthinkable. That’s what I did by doing my own take on Sholay, didn’t I?” reasons the resourceful Ramu.

Though he doesn’t want to say anything more on the eagerly awaited Amitabh Bachchan-Devgan-Sushmita Sen-Mohanlal starrer, we have it from impeccable sources that a lot of the footage from the original Sholay has been pruned away in the ‘remix’.

And the original Ramesh Sippy 3-hrs-19-min epic has been reduced to close to 2-hrs -30-mins in Ramu’s version of the epic.

“Though the length has been reduced, there’re more characters in Ramu’s Sholay than in Sippy’s and the new Sholay is very very different from the old,” says someone close to the project who’s had a dekko.

A sneak peak of the film shows that actor to watch besides Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar is Sushmita Sen. Dressed in black, her silences as the widowed Radha will stun the audiences.

Ram Gopal Varma has already surprised the public by announcing that Amitabh Bachchan will play the role of Gabbar Singh played by Amjad Khan in the original.

Varma also roped in Mohanlal, the popular Malayalam actor, to play the role of Thakur Baldev Singh.

The character of Jai will be portrayed by new find, Mohit Ahlawat. Another shocking casting decision was Katrina Kaif being chosen for the role of Radha.

Esha Deol is going rumored to play the role of Basanti originally played by her mother Hema Malini.

Abhishek Bachchan was originally meant to play the role of Veeru but dropped out. When Ram Gopal Varma discussed the film’s end with Amitabh and Abhishek, they realised it would be very difficult to show the real-life father and son duo fight each other for shooting the climax.

This led to Abhishek bowing out of the film. Saif Ali Khan was then offered the role but he turned it down as well.

It was announced in December 2005 that Ajay Devgan will now essay the role of Veeru. Manoj Bajpai, who was offered the role of Sambha, has turned down the offer. It is known that actor Manoj Bajpai and Ram Gopal Varma have not been on talking terms with each other. Sunil Shetty was also considered for the role of Sambha but later Ramu signed Sushant Singh for Sambha’s role.

They are rumours that Boman Irani was offered to play Angrez Jailer and Shreyas Talpade to play Ahmed.

Asha Bhosle will be singing the famous track ‘Mehbooba O Mehbooba’, the original song being sung by her late husband R D Burman, Amitabh Bachchan will pitch in a few lines. Apart from this, Himesh Reshammiya is also recording a different special remixed version of the original number for the film.

Interestingly, he will also feature in the music video of the song along with Big B and Urmila Matondkar, an old favourite of Ramu.