New Sholay - Ram Gopal Varma

The emotion at work between daddy Dharmendra and his “naughty boy” Bobby Deol is tangible when we meet the Deols at their Juhu residence.

As the 70-plus star talks proudly of his sons, family, his times and dreams, giving us several quotable quotes, a cautious Bobby tries hard to make his Papaji stick to politically correct statements. But Dharmendra, who recently made a comeback of sorts as a lovesick expatriate in Metro, is in the mood to talk. After a while Bobby gives up, with a wink.

“I’ll remake Sholay with Abhishek Bachchan and Bobby,” says a spirited Dharmendra, who will be seen onscreen again as home production Apne releases on June 29. The Anil Sharma film has Dharmendra and sons Sunny and Bobby in the lead.

In his sprawling three-storey bungalow, Dharmendra reminisces, “Of all my children, Bobby used to be the naughtiest. Sunny has always been very quiet and an introvert.” The doting daddy has grand plans for his younger son. “I made Betaab to launch Sunny and Barsaat for Bobby. Now, I’m planning a comedy with Bobby. It will be about a flirt who falls in love in the end,” he says.

Dharmendra may be far from being the cool dad who is his children’s best bud, but Bobby has no complaints. “He is not just a great father, but an amazing human being too. I am blessed to be his son,” he says.

The younger son shares a lot in common with his father. Much like Dharmendra, he too has no plans to take up direction. Sunny, however, had his tryst behind the camera with Dillagi. “Like Papaji, I don’t understand the technical aspects of filmmaking,” says Bobby.

The careers of both Dharmendra and Bobby are looking up. The audience loved the Sholay hero in Metro, while Bobby is looking forward to reclaim his position in Bollywood with Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Apne and Naqaab. “Over the next few months, I’ll be seen in a variety of roles,” says Bobby, who plays a negative character in Naqaab.

Gabbar Singh’s Ramgarh will now become a district. Ramanagaram, where Sholay was shot, will make its debut as a district on Independence Day.

Along with Ramanagaram, Chikballapur in Kolar district will be carved out as a district on August 15, with the cabinet clearing both the proposals on Thursday. With this, the number of districts in the state will go up to 29. Though chief minister H D Kumaraswamy announced that Ramanagaram would be inaugurated on the “auspicious day” of June 28, the procedure for district formation is not going to be complete by then.

Home minister M P Prakash told reporters after the cabinet meeting: “The decision has to be notified in the gazette. The public will be given 30 days to file objections. Other procedures might take about three-four months, but we hope to have both the districts inaugurated on August 15.”

The reason cited for new districts: “Administrative convenience.” Prakash admitted that administrative expenditure will increase but insisted that it was necessary.

Prakash said the revenue department had written to the Justice Kuldip Singh Delimitation Commission seeking permission to carve out the districts. “The commission has said it will shortly notify the constituencies, so we have decided to go ahead.”

The naming of new districts after historical personalities — Kempe Gowda for Ramanagaram and M Visvesvaraya for Chikballapur has been dropped. Prakash said: “The district reorganisation committee headed by V Balasubramanian has said the names of historical figures should not be given to districts. They have cited the examples of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh and said the naming issue has caused agitation.”

The government has also dropped move to split the burgeoning Gulbarga and Belgaum districts, a long-standing demand that was not addressed even when seven new districts were carved out by the Patel government in 1997. The people of Gulbarga were split over whether the new district should be Yadgir or Bheemarayanagudi in Shahpur, while local representatives in Belgaum were against the carving out of Chikkodi as it would become Marathi-dominant, increasing the border problem with Maharashtra.

Prakash said Rs 72.58 crore had been earmarked for infrastructure for Ramanagaram and Chikballapur districts.

You are doing Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay, where you are playing Gabbar Singh — a role played by your close friend Amjad Khan. Is there a feeling of nostalgia? Do you miss him?

Obviously. Every step you take while working on the film, you think about what went on. Memories of any film you do always remain with you. Sometimes, when you get an opportunity to refer to it or think back on it, which happens quite often, because as you age you start thinking of your past a lot more.

Sholay has been a huge amount of nostalgia. In some ways, it’s also coming full circle.

I loved Gabbar Singh’s role when Salim-Javed narrated it to me. I begged Mr Ramesh Sippy that I wanted to do it. We were driving for the first time from Bangalore to the location. He didn’t agree. I am happy Ramu has thrown this, as a challenge.

Will there be comparisons, as Amjad Khan made Gabbar an iconic villain?

Obviously there will be comparisons. That’s fair enough. That’s something one will have to live with. What is interesting is that there are diverse roles coming my way, which is not necessarily the good sounding patriarch who looks after the family.

With every other person with a video camera doing a remake of Sholay (okay slight exaggeration on my part), this news doesn’t surprise me! A producer from Madhya Pradesh’s Malwa region is also remaking the Sholay (yawn!) but kahani meain twist hai! This one will be “socially relevant”.

Its called Malwa Ke Sholay (how imaginative) and in Shalindra Sen’s version the villain Gabbar will fall in love with Basanti, who is forced to submit to his advances. After that she is deemed impure and not accepted back in society!

“Indian society from the epic age of Ramayan, has never accepted back women if they happen to spend one night away from home.”

Poor Gabbar feels bad and wants to reform himself for Basanti! Some one please pass the smelling salts before I faint!

Every time I think about RGV’s Sholay, I break into hives! Its not that I doubt RGV’s genius, it’s just that some movies are never meant to be “remade”. Sholay definitely belongs to that category! Anyways now the movie is once again in the news as the Industry is abuzz about the hot, raunchy number, Chaha Re picturised on Ajay Devgan and Nisha Kothari.

Shabina Khan has choreographed the song, with music by Nitin Raikar. Devgan’s make-up artiste Harish Wadhone has done his styling.

Says Ramu, “It’s one of the most arresting songs of my career as the concept is so different. I have tried to capture different images. We have worked together in Company and Bhoot and Ajay trusts me as a director. I told him that I’d had enough of shooting barely-clad women. For a change, I wanted to shoot a barely-clad man!”

Chalo ji, I think RGV has said it all! To each his own!

The stars, along with Shahid Kapur, Kareena Kapoor, Zayed Khan and Esha Deol are all set to perform spoofs on ‘Sholay’ and other hit films in a stage show called Rock-Stars.

Interestingly, every star will have a specific theme song specially composed for them. The shows, which will have the stars booked for over 50 days, will travel to the US, Canada and Europe.

While the promoter of this show is the Canada-based Esquire, Sohail Khan Entertainment, GS Entertainment and Suniel Shetty’s Pop Corn are the Indian partners.

Confirms Mohammed Morani from Cineyug, which is directing and scripting the shows, “These will be fun-filled shows with a stress on youthfulness. There will surely be gags and we will be making bakras out of people.”

RGV’s Sholay is different and is reinvented in all its aspects- characterization, situations, songs and even the story line a bit.

Ram Gopal Verma Quote on his latest remake :

“My Sholay is a remix of many westerns and a completely different interpretation of the earlier Sholay. The uniqueness of Sholay’s story is that it’s not a genre film. It’s the story of a man who wants to take revenge. It was supposed to be a dark, violent film where you hate the villain but instead made you love Gabbar Singh. When I first told Amitabh Bachchan that I was remaking Sholay he laughed. He thought I was joking. It took me 10 minutes to convince him I was serious. I narrated the scenes to him and the way I was planning to shoot, adapt and redesign the characters for contemporary times. Ajay and I go back a long way so he has a certain trust in me as a director. I remember when I had narrated the Sholay script to him during the making of Bhoot Ajay was super excited about it. He was the first guy I spoke to about adapting Sholay. My intention of remaking Sholay is not to make a better one but to adapt it. I want to change her clothes and see her in another dress.”

SINDHI SHOLAY BY YOUNER BROTHER OF JOHNY LEVER

This song from one of the greatest movies Bollywood has ever produced is now going to see itself in two movies of today. We are talking about the song ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ from the movie ‘Sholay’ in which the legendary Helen created raves.We all know that Ram Gopal Varma is making his ‘Sholay’ and there fore it is pretty obvious that he would want to cash upon this hit and evergreen song but there is one more film which has incorporated it.

Himesh Reshammiya has managed to picturised this song on Mallika Sherawat for his movie ‘Aap Kaa Surroor’. While on the other hand Urmila Matondkar would be dancing on this song for Ramu.

Well all that we wanted to tell you is that this song was originally sung by Asha Bhosle and Ramu has even contacted her to sing it again. But things did not seem to work out between them and ultimately Sunidhi Chauhan did the honours. But now what we want to tell you is that Asha has sung this song for Himesh, even though once she had desired to slap him for his comments.

So there will now be a war when both these songs hit the charts and the screen. We do not know who will win the war but we are the only ones who will benefit from the two versions.

Big B shinning with variety. Amitabh Bachchan who was known as the “Angry young man” of the film industry has comfortably escaped the typecast with his second innings in the film industry .Where most of the writers in the industry are engrossed in designing diverse roles for Big B, which is humbly embraced by the actor.

Right from sexy Sam in ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ to an infatuated photographer who falls for an 18 year old in Nishabd .His Latest venture Cheeni Kum was Amitabh the actor personified, where he played an eccentric chef who falls for Tabu and how life events proceed from these.

There’s lots more to come from the star actor who’s playing a genie in ‘Aladdin & the mystery of the lamp’, a ghost in ‘Bhoothnath’, Gabbar the dacoit in RGV’s new version Sholay, A small cameo with a hippy look in ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’ .