Sholay (1975)

After his family is murdered by a notorious and ruthless bandit, a former police officer enlists the services of two outlaws to capture the bandit.

Director:

Ramesh Sippy

Writers:

Javed Akhtar (as Salim-Javed), Salim Khan (as Salim-Javed)

Stars:

Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan

Top Rated Indian Movies #46 | 2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sanjeev Kumar	...	Thakur Baldev Singh
Dharmendra	...	Veeru
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Jai
Amjad Khan	...	Gabbar Singh
Hema Malini	...	Basanti
Jaya Bhaduri	...	Radha
A.K. Hangal	...	Imaam Saheb
Satyendra Kapoor	...	Ramlal (as Satyen Kappu)
Iftekhar	...	Narmalaji (Radha's father)
Leela Mishra	...	Mausie (as Leela Misra)
Vikas Anand	...	Jailer assigned to bring Veeru & Jaidev
Mac Mohan	...	Sambha
Keshto Mukherjee	...	Hariram
Sachin	...	Ahmed
Alankar Joshi	...	Deepak (as Master Alankar)

Storyline

Sholay means embers in Hindi. In this particular movie, a Police Officer, who's family was killed by a bandit named Gabbar Singh, decides to fight fire with fire and recruits two convicts, Jai and Veeru to capture Gabbar. He approaches them in jail, puts the proposal in front of them, and they agree to bring in Gabbar Singh alive - for a hefty price. After their discharge from jail, they travel by train to the village where the Police Officer lives - now with only his widowed daughter-in-law. The three band together to fight one of the most elusive and dreaded bandits of all time. Will the two ex-cons be able to bring Gabbar alive to the Police Officer?

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Plot Keywords:

cult film | melodrama | low budget film | police | bandit | 

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Taglines:

The greatest star cast ever assembled.......The greatest story ever told

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Musical | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

15 August 1975 (India)

Also Known As:

Embers

Filming Locations:

Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

United Producers, Sippy Films, Sholay Media & Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

198 min 204 min (director's cut) 246 min (rough cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Mono (35 mm prints) Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Indo/American movie "Yeh Dosti"(2003) got its title from the song "Yeh Dositibh:" in the film.

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Goofs

When Basanthi is being chased by bandits, while crossing the wooden bridge she does a small stunt, she moves the horse cart and breaks down the bridge and moves ahead, so the bandits are forced to take a detour to catch her. Veeru follows them and also find the bridge broken and take a detour. Both Basanti and Veeru are caught by the bandits and Jai rescues them later. While returning after being saved by Jai from Gabbar's den, Veeru, Basanti and Jai are seen crossing the same bridge which is fully intact.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jailer: Errr... Thakur sahib?

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Alternate Versions

There has recently been a director's cut of Sholay shown on the asian u.k. satellite channel 'Zee TV', this has not been released up till now on cinemas. It contains the original ending director Ramesh Sippy intended that shows GabarSingh being killed at the hands of Thakur, instead of just being arrested by police. The film ran into problems with Indian Censors who claimed their rules about people taking the law into their own hands and not being punished for it was not permitted and may corrupt naive viewers; for this reason the ending of the film had to be re-shot for a 'U' Rating. Other unrated footage includes a more graphic footage of the fight between Gabar and Thakur in the film's ending, the subsequent pre-torture footage of a young village boy (showing Gabar's ruthlessness), Veeru dragging a bandit with a neck-noose galluping on horse- back, Ramlal fitting metal-spiked studs on Thakur's shoes, a village person on fire during a raid by Gabar.

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Connections

Referenced in Koffee with Karan: Episode #6.11 (2018)

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Soundtracks

Yeh Dosti
(Sad Version)
Performed by Kishore Kumar
Lyrics by Anand Bakshi
Music by Rahul Dev Burman

User Reviews

Great Movie... Everyone should have seen this movie at least one time !

Great Movie... Everyone should have seen this movie at least one time ! I bought this movie on DVD now, although I am not a big fan of elder films... i love this film, and especially the dialogs of GB ! For all Amitabh fans its a must have movie ! The whole story is really good and the movie has a flair of an American western. Even the sound of Sholay and the atmosphere which is given to the watcher are one of the best i have seen in Bollywood. I have heard, there will be a remake of this film, but I think it could not be as good as the original Sholay. All because of the actors like Amjad Khan who was born for this role. This film is one of bollywood's best movies ever.