New Sholay - Ram Gopal Varma

Film writer Salim Khan’s contribution to Hindi cinema has been incomparable. Paired with writer Javed Akhtar, the duo as Salim-Javed has delivered some of the biggest hits till date including ‘Don’ and ‘Sholay’.

Their films were such a rage that even the new breed of film-makers hasn’t been able to resist the idea of remaking them.

While Salim awaits the release of the remake of ‘Sholay’, he shares his views on ‘originality’ and the trend that has gripped the clichéd and idea-deficient Bollywood - remaking films.

He says, “Remaking and rehashing has been done for years. We never claimed that ‘Sholay’ was an original movie. I am not saying we have copied it. But it had many influences.

One sees films and reads books and gets ideas. As a writer, I have tried to give it something that will add to its value. We do make films on other films and books. Sometimes we take a few scenes; sometimes the full film.”

Interestingly, Salim says even he has never been original. “Everything is influenced by something or the other. I am not original either; several influences have worked on me to make me,” he says.

But there is something else too that Salim feels strongly about - the new face of ‘Sholay’. He says, “One is killing its vastness by bringing the story into the city.

Secondly, Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar is not the right choice as he has a positive image. I can respect Ram Gopal Varma’s point of view if people accept Amitabh as Gabbar and prove me wrong.” Salim adds that he sees Ajay Devgan as the ideal choice for the role as ‘he has developed into a fine actor.”

Once a very busy man, these days Salim is not writing any films. “I need three months of isolation and concentration to write a script’.

Since Salim is sure he is going to see the remake, he says, “Comparison with the first version is inevitable. I felt the same when I went to see the new ‘Don’. But, I personally feel that the remake of ‘Sholay’ doesn’t deserve the hype it is getting.”

Watch this hot latest video featuring Urmila Matondkar in the song Mehbooba Mehbooba from the remake of the classic movie Sholay by Ram Gopal Verma.

I guess Urmila is perfectly suited to replace someone like Helen from the original song. Just watch and download this video right now.

Amitabh Bachchan remembers Amjad Khan on his 15th death anniversary, ahead of the Sholay remake

I first met Amjad on the outdoors of Sholay. He had an endearing presence, one that was immediately likeable and it was a quality that most succumbed to. I was keen on knowing who he was from day one because he was going to play the role I liked best: of Gabbar Singh.

Amjad’s credentials preceded him. Salim-Javed, the writers of the film, had recommended him after seeing his work on stage. They spoke of him in glorious terms. In hindsight, it turned out to be prophetic.

We loved everything about Amjad during the making of the film — his persona, style, performing capabilities. But we were sceptical of his voice. We felt it was very feeble for a frame so large — and for Gabbar. But Amjad disproved us. That very voice became the most attractive part of the character and, indeed, the film. In those days, it was common for a film’s music to come out on LP. But for Sholay, the dialogue of the film came out first, and most of them were Amjad’s. Till date, it is only his dialogues that remain in our memory.

Amjad made friends easily and trusted them without question. It came naturally to him. He would be hurt when they betrayed him, but was never vengeful.

The tea industry in India needed to acknowledge him for its sales. He drank gallons of it during the course of a day. Tea and his bank of lighthearted banter were two constants in his life.

He possessed great intellect. Urdu poetry and semi-classical music found a prominent space in his daily routine. Ghazal evenings were often organised on the terrace of his Bandra house; he was in his elements then.

He voluntarily helped people. Not just friends, but people. I know for sure that on several occasions he would work in a project purely because it would financially bring someone out of trouble, knowing fully well that the project would perhaps be harmful for his own standing.

In times of trouble, you could trust him to stand beside you. It was ironic and sad, therefore, that when he had his car accident, driving to Goa for the shoot of a film that he and I were starring in, there was no one beside him. He was in a bad shape. The accident had occurred some miles from the city. His wife and son, little Shadab, were with him. Stranded and alone on the highway, it was a herculean task for him to find help. By the time we got him to the Goa Hospital in Panjim, a unit devoid of sophisticated medical equipment in those days, he was slipping into a coma.

One of the most difficult decisions of my life was signing the document on behalf of him and his family, for surgical procedures to be initiated. There was no one around. His family was in Bombay and could only come in the next day, and those for whom he had come to work for, did not want to take the risk. The hours that went by during the surgery, as they repaired his broken ribs and pierced lung, were a nightmare. When he made it out of the OT, I drank myself silly that night and wept, and prayed that he would survive. He was a tough cookie; he made it.

He was shifted to Bombay soon after where he recuperated at Nanavati Hospital. I just didn’t have the courage to go and meet him — reverse withdrawal symptoms. It was difficult to see this strong specimen of masculinity, lying limp, weak and defeated — until he wrote me a note from his bed, the contents of which I cannot disclose, and I went across to see him. He was fine. The banter was back, as was that ever-present mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

During the making of one of the several films we did together — I think it was Parvarish by Manmohan Desai — a mock submarine was constructed for the climax scene. As in most of Manji’s films, other than him we all found the situations he created greatly illogical. (It’s another matter that he would always have the last laugh because all his ill logic eventually rattled the cash registers at the box office.) This one was no different. We suddenly discovered that all the artists on set were Librans — Shammiji (Shammi Kapoor), Vinod Khanna, Amjad, Kader Khan and myself. So we quickly and very wittily invented a little ditty: “We are crazy Librans (beeping) up this film!” sung to the tune of a famous World War II, motivational British battle song. This became our signature greeting every time we found ourselves in similar extenuating circumstances and we would have a good laugh over it.

In 1982, I had my accident on the sets of Coolie. Coming out of the ICU after two months, one of the first to meet me in hospital was Amjad. As he walked into the room at Breach Candy Hospital, he burst into, “We are crazy Librans.” It was, perhaps, the first time the nurses saw a smile on my face.

He left us suddenly. Unexpectedly, without warning. In his sleep. On hearing the news, I rushed to his house and up to his bedroom. It was difficult to imagine that he had gone.

This wonderful friend, this great companion and colleague just lay there as though in deep sleep. And as I looked on, I almost felt that at any moment he would open his eyes and with his mischievous grin greet me with a “Hi, Shorty!”.

Working in a remake project of all time block buster movie, and playing a role originally played by Hema Malini is sufficient to have nervous breakdown for any rising actress. Ask Nisha Kothari, modern age Basanti in the film “Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag”.

When Ram Gopal Verma decided remaking Sholay, there were protests all over India. There were questions whether a film like Sholay can ever be remade. Moreover RGV had converted the entire plot to suit it today’s social life, which can be more suicidal than the attempt itself. While Nisha Kothari was asked about her feeling while doing “Ghungroo”, a character inspired by the original character of Basanti in Sholay, she was found answering,

“I was a nervous wreck on the first day of shooting. Everyone was talking about Nisha Kothari playing Basanti. But, with due respect to Hemaji, my character in the film has been inspired by Basanti, and is in no way similar to the one she played in Sholay. I play a tapori called Ghungroo who rides an auto named Laila, not a horse called Dhanno. Our attitudes are different. I smoke in the film and even attempt to do it like Rajnikanth “

Quite daring, I must say. RGV is all set to recreate the history and is explaining his move as the tribute to this epic blockbuster. There is assurance that he will definitely keep the original charm of the movie intact. But if rumors are to be believed, RGV is doing all these to get Big B signed for his Sarkar sequel. Amitabh had a passion towards the character Gabbar Singh; he openly vouched for this character in many occasions. May be this is actually a tribute to Big B from RGV. The question that arises next, is Indian audience prepared for the remake? The extreme dissatisfaction among many of the actors involved in original Sholay says it all. Still Ramu is out with his experiment. Let’s hope he gets fair judgment from the audience at least for his courage.

Acting with RGV was a pleasure, according to Nisha, the new RGV brand girl. She is thrilled to act with all great stars like Ajay Devgan, Amitabh Bachhan, and Susmita Sen. According to her the entire experience will be very healthy and fruitful for her. Lets hope whether we also can have the same pleasant feeling after watching this most debated remake of the century.

 In an interview Javed Akhtar commneting about RGV’s AAG:

“A film made nearly 32 years ago has had such an impact on every generation. There have been ads revolving around the characters, people have produced gags. Lines of dialogue from Sholay are still spoken at functions and shows.

Sholay has been the most powerful script of all time. Actually, whether it’s Ram Gopal Varma or anyone else who remakes Sholay, leaves me indifferent and amused.

The original will always be fresh in everyone’s memory. After everything now, here’s a full-fledged movie basking in the glory of Sholay. My best wishes to Mr Varma. Don faced flak from the critics. I’m not against remakes per se. But a filmmaker must be creative, give it a different perspective.

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed won an Oscar this year was a remake of Hong Kong movie. Ten Commandments was reattempted by a few people. Mother India was a remake of Aurat. P C Barua’s Devdas was a remake.

Even Mughal-e-Azam had shades of Anarkali. But Ben-hur is among the few classics which has never been re-attempted.. there was no scope left for another version. “

Ram Gopal Varma Ke Aag (Sholay) Official Site

http://www.rgvkiaag.com/

Interview of RGV:

Do you think there is a common theme running through all your films?
Yes, it’s possible. I like this idea of a guy coming from somewhere and getting into these situations. That’s what I picked up from the Bruce Lee films – Enter the Dragon, Return of the Dragon and Fist of Fury.

Also, films based on James Hadley Chase novels would be a very effective way of getting the audience involved — because you connect to the protagonist, and through his eyes, into the story. Even in a horror film, a family coming into your house gets you involved. I guess I’m obsessed with the idea of someone coming somewhere from elsewhere.

Do you see ghosts behind the doors in your house?
I used to feel that way when I was making Bhoot.. I have this L-shaped bedroom, and if I was on the bed, I used to feel that Manjeet, the ghost in Bhoot, was behind the wall.

I used to laugh at myself and turn to one side and sleep.. and then hear this breathing sound. I would want to turn and see, angry at myself for being imaginative.

Have you ever got into a crisis, felt helpless?
No, I’ve never got into a crisis or felt helpless. If something happens which is not in my control, I usually think of a way of getting out of it. And if I can’t, then I’ll face it.

Have you ever been lost?
Never, because I don’t drive. I always have a driver with me, or someone else driving.

No bizarre situations, robberies or rapes?
Rape?

Ok robbery.
No, I’ve never been involved in a situation, which is out of the ordinary.

What attracts you musically?
Whether it’s my stories, or the music of anything I do, most of it is from how I was influenced in my teens or childhood.

There is a heavy influence of Ilaiyaraja. Like when I brief my music director about the sound I want, I probably take it from a memory of what I felt when I heard a particular song in my growing years.

Tell me about some of the western influences on your music?
Western influences, too, would be the music I grew up on. for I rarely listen to contemporary music now. I have very little knowledge of it.

What did you listen to?
More than songs, I used to be heavily into background scores. There were no CDs then. I used to take a small tape recorder and record the background scores of Enter the Dragon, The Omen or Jaws.. those kinds of films.

Did you have any favourites?
Abba was my favourite.I knew most of the songs but I can’t sing any of them.

You worked very well with AR Rahman in Rangeela and Daud. So what happened? Break-up?
I don’t think I could call it a breakup. Rahman is a very rare individual. I know only one of his kind, I don’t think there’s anybody nearly as sincere as Rahman in the music business.

When you listen to his music, you don’t have a choice.. while making Rangeela, I used to have sleepless nights, trying to work out how I would do justice to the music he had composed.

I work at a certain pace and am very impatient by nature. I want to do things yesterday and Rahman will do it day after. It’s basically that delay in time – I don’t have the patience to wait – this is the only reason I haven’t worked with Rahman after that.

Ramgopal Varma has not only changed the title of his forthcoming film from ‘Ramgopal Varma Ke Sholay’ to ‘Ramgopal Varma Ki Aag’, but he has also given new names to the characters in his film, which is inspired by G.P.Sippy’s ‘Sholay’. As may be recalled, some members of the Sippy family dragged Varma to court over copyright issues and rather than fight it out in court, Ramgopal Varma backed out mid-way and instead chose to change the titles and the names of his charecters.

Thus, ‘Gabbar Singh’ of the landmark ‘Sholay’ has been rechristened ‘Babban’ ; ‘Basanti’ will be ‘Ghungroo’ ; ‘Sambha’ will be ‘Tambe’ ; the name of ‘Radha’ will now be ‘Durga’ ; and instead of ‘Thakur’, the name will be ‘Narasimhan’.

Ramgopal Varma is known to make several impulsive decisions, he has made several remakes of his own films and he has also recently made his version of the all time classic Sholay. The legal wrangles surrounding Varma’s Sholay seem to be clearing, now he has also moved on to his sequel Sarkar 2 with Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya. According to sources now Varma has decided to once again cast the Bachchans, Amitabh, Abhi and Ash in his earlier shelved project Time Machine. Varma was earlier supposed to do the film with Shahrukh and Kareena but later shelved the project claiming that SRK’s image and his school of cinema did not gel well together.

Well now Varma has decided to revive his Time machine and it seems Amitabh and Abhishek will replace Shahrukh while Ash will replace Kareena. Varma is excited to be able to make another film with the Bachchans and he narrated the script to Abhi while filming Sarkar 2. Abhishek was excited with the script and immediately agreed to be part of the film. And Amitabh has already worked with Varma on several of his films. The film is said to be a science –fiction film. So while SRK has been donning all of Amitabh’s roles in his remakes, Amitabh too has now decided to don a role earlier offered to SRK. So is this one more brick in the SRK-Amitabh war. Also is Ramu playing up with the Bachchans in their war against SRK? Earlier Ramu had given an extremely feeble reason for shelving Time-Machine with SRK, he claimed “The kind of cinema I make is incompatible with Shahrukh’s image. And the film I planned is completely opposite of the image he has amongst his fans. I would be a total mismatch with Shahrukh.”

However it seems SRK will not be left behind in the rat race and is currently in talks for producing his own sci-fi film. Apparently Shahrukh is in talks with south director of super hit film Sivaji to direct his sci-fi film which Shahrukh may even produce. So it seems SRK has decided that no matter what it takes he will do his own sci-fi film.

Sholay’s co-writer Javed Akhter on Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay:

“A film made nearly 32 years ago has had such an impact on every generation. There have been ads revolving around the characters, people have produced gags. Lines of dialogue from Sholay are still spoken at functions and shows.

Sholay has been the most powerful script of all time. Actually, whether it’s Ram Gopal Varma or anyone else who remakes Sholay, leaves me indifferent and amused.

The original will always be fresh in everyone’s memory. After everything now, here’s a full-fledged movie basking in the glory of Sholay. My best wishes to Mr Varma. Don faced flak from the critics. I’m not against remakes per se. But a filmmaker must be creative, give it a different perspective.

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed won an Oscar this year was a remake of Hong Kong movie. Ten Commandments was reattempted by a few people. Mother India was a remake of Aurat. P C Barua’s Devdas was a remake.
Even Mughal-e-Azam had shades of Anarkali. But Ben-hur is among the few classics which has never been re-attempted.. there was no scope left for another version.